


Angels Fall Sometimes

by Pythias



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2019-08-27 23:36:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 33,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16712164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pythias/pseuds/Pythias
Summary: While on her way to Watchpoint Grand Mesa, a young Doctor Angela Ziegler runs into trouble when her train is hijacked by the infamous Deadlock Gang, including a young cowboy named Jesse McCree, and she is kidnapped and taken back to their base. This small twist of fate will change many things for our two heroes as they navigate the Deadlock Gang, Overwatch, and beyond.A very AU McMercy fic that has been rattling around in my head for a while now. Because if Blizzard won't give us lore, we have to write our own, right?





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is my first fic for AO3, and my first in the Overwatch fandom. I know this isn't the most popular ship, but I hope that you enjoy it! Title is unashamedly stolen from a Josh Turner song of the same name.

The windswept desert of the American Southwest passed by in a blur outside of the window of the maglev train that slithered across the dust and dirt like a silver snake. Curled in the corner with her knees drawn up to her chest and tucked under her oversized white sweater, Angela rested her forehead against the sun-warmed window, watching as the small towns and saguaros speed by under the unrelenting light of the noonday sun, ignoring the two large, brightly colored books labeled “Trauma Surgery Board Review-18th edition” and “Nanosurgery 4e” on the table in front of her. She fidgeted with a ballpoint pen, before sticking it into her high ponytail. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to relax into the plush blue bench seat in spite of the excitement and nerves she felt.

“Headin’ up to Denver?” the man across the table from her drawled, setting the tablet he held on the the table, and leaning forwards, resting his elbows on the steel table between them.

“No, I will be getting off at Grand Mesa.” Angela said pleasantly, turning her attention from the window to the man across from her. He was an older man, probably in his fifties or so judging by the gray in his otherwise dark hair and beard and the deep lines running across his face. Probably a smoker, based on the gravelly nature of his voice and the slight smell of tobacco smoke permeating the air, not to mention his poor dentition.

“Well this is more than a bit out of your way? Why’d you decide to take the train? Figured by your accent...German?”

“Swiss.”

“Swiss. That you’d have to fly out here anyway, so why take the train instead of flyin’ the whole way in?”

“Flying, it makes me nervous. Besides, there is not much that you can truly see from the air. It is my first time in America, and I’ve heard the countryside is beautiful. I wanted to see as much of it as I could.”

“Well, let me welcome to the beautiful US of A then. Are ya on vacation?”

“Quite the opposite. I have been asked to join the Overwatch team stationed in Colorado.” 

“Well, ain’t that something! A real Overwatch agent right here. What’s a pretty little thing like you doing joining up with Overwatch?” The man’s yellow grin put Angela on guard for a reason she could not name.

“I am joining their medical team.”

“Oh so you’re a nurse!”

“A doctor actually. I am going to join the research team there.”

“Don’t think I caught your name, doc.”

“Doctor….Ziegler.” she hesitated for a reason she couldn’t quite place. His grin grew wider and he settled back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. The tension and fear in her chest continued to rise, a feeling of danger she couldn’t quite justify. 

“Pleasure to meet ya Doctor Ziegler. Joe Winterburg.”

“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Winterburg. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should get back to studying.” She said, flipping open the book labeled “Trauma Surgery” in front of her to a random page. She reread a sentence about laparotomies four or five times as she tried to concentrate on the words as they swirled across the page, pointedly ignoring the man across the table. 

“Travelling alone I take it?” He said, breaking the silence once again.

“No.” She lied, continuing to stare at a diagram she had memorized years ago, “No, my travelling companion is in another car. We couldn’t get seats together.”

“Well, that is a shame, innit?”

“I beg your pardon?” she looked up into his sharp green eyes, feeling fear and panic bubble up in her chest.

“That you couldn’t get seats together.”

“Right, yes, but if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go check on him and see how he is doing.” Angela said, as she sat her book down and made to stand up.

“Ah ah, not so fast little missy.” Joe reached across the table and grabbed her wrist. She struggled a bit, but heard the unmistakable sound of an old-fashioned mechanical hammer being cocked.

“You know what that sound is, dontcha?” He said low and slow. Angela nodded, staring him in the eyes unblinking as she tamped down the fear rising in her chest.

“Now, slowly look around. See all the other people in this here train car? Well, I’d say one in every five is one of my boys. All of them are armed and have been shootin’ since they were old enough to hold a gun. Wouldn’t want to be making trouble knowing that all of these fine folks could get the bad end of it, would ya?” Angela slowly shook her head. She could feel her pulse increasing as her right hand began to grow numb. “Didn’t think so. Now, if you wouldn’t mind sittin’ yourself down while we wait for my men to finish what they came here for, I think we can both come out of this alright.” Angela sat down slowly, maintaining eye contact with him the whole way. He let go of her wrist and settled back into the seat, smirking the whole time.

“What do you want with me.” She whispered.

“S’pose you’ll find out soon enough, girlie. You’ve caught the attention of some mighty powerful folks. Now, go back to your little book there and do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it, capisce?” The train lurched and stuttered, swaying back and forth on the rail, causing some of the passengers to awaken from their naps and look up from their crossword puzzles. A computerized chime sounded from over the loudspeakers.

“Please remain calm!” a cheerful, robotic female voice declared, her voice filling the cabin “We are experiencing momentary technical difficulties! Please remain in your seats and await further instructions.” With this, the train began to slow on the tracks. A few of the passengers whispered to each other in hushed voices that Angela could not distinguish. Joe smirked from across the table and checked his watch.

“Well, how about that! Right on schedule.” He chuckled as the chimes sounded again.  
“We are experiencing technical difficulties! Please await further instructions from your conductor! We thank you again for choosing US Maglev Rail for all your travelling needs!” The cheerful voice said again as the train came to a complete stop.

“That’s our cue, girlie. Stand up and walk out that door there.” He said, motioning to the back of the car with his empty right hand. She hesitated for a moment, and glanced at her bag.

“Not takin’ anything with us, girl. Can’t have you calling for help. Business, you understand.” When she glared back at him and didn’t move, he sighed and snapped his fingers. The sound of pistols cocking rang through the cabin, accompanied by gasps and shrieks from the other passengers. Angela’s eyes grew wide.

“It’s you or them, girlie, pick your poison.” He smirked. Quickly, Angela stood and stepped into the aisle. She immediately felt Joe behind her, one hand grasping her left upper arm, the other holding a pistol lodged solidly into the right side of her mid-back. “Now if you wouldn’t mind, let’s walk through that door there.” She reached out for the door handle, and as she stepped through, Joe turned back and nonchalantly called out, “No witnesses.” The sound of gunfire rang through the car, cut short by the door hissing closed. 

“Scheisse! What have you done? They were innocent! You’ll pay for this!” she whispered with as much vitriol as she could muster as she struggled against his firm grasp. She felt the gun move from her back as, in one fluid motion, he whirled her around and slapped her hard across the cheek to the point where she saw stars.

“Darlin’ if you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut up real quick. I ain’t been caught yet and I don’t reckon I’m gonna start today. Now, move along. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, and I’m thinkin’ you’re not gonna like the hard way. Besides, we’ve got an appointment to make, and you’ve already made me late.” He faced her back forward and she felt his gun press against her back once again.

They marched through the next few cars, heading towards the back of the train in silence. All of the cars were dimly lit and stacked full of crates and boxes of cargo. Angela could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and she struggled to keep her hands still so the man behind her couldn’t see how badly she was shaking. She opened the door to the next car, which was full of men using cables to hoist boxes of something through a hole in the roof.

“Hey Joe! About time you showed up! We’ve got most of the gold loaded. Looks like we’re actually running on time for...who is this?” A young man, maybe the same age as Angela said, stopping as Joe and Angela walked into the light from the hole in the ceiling. He was thin, almost scrawny, with the beginnings of a dark beard on his cheeks. In spite of her situation, Angela noted that he was attractive, his wide brimmed cowboy hat reminding her of the cowboys in the old Western movies her father had adored. Angela noticed his brown eyes were wide in confusion and surprise, before narrowing in suspicion as he glared at the large man standing behind her.

“This right here is gonna make us a whole hell of a lot of money.” Joe laughed, pushing Angela forward so she tripped, landing hard on her stomach on the metal floor of the train car. A smattering of laughter rang out in the car. Angela stood up, straightened her once white sweater, now covered in black dust and grime from the floor of the train, and ignored the hole torn in the right knee of her leggings, the pain in that knee, and the feeling of blood from her knee running down her shin.

“Ain’t that what the gold is gonna do?” The young man said loudly, stomping behind her to yell directly at Joe, “Since when was this part of the plan, Joe? You know how the boss gets when we go off-script.”

“Your mission was the gold, mine was the girl. Looks like we both got what we came here for. Ashe is gonna be extra happy tonight. Might not even get mad at ya when I tell her how you were trying to muck up the mission, Jesse. Now, get the girl onto the ship, keep an eye on her, and for god’s sake keep her quiet. I’ll take over down here.” Angela felt the large presence step away from behind her, and a hand gently grab her elbow, but she stared straight ahead, refusing to look at the young man standing next to her.

“Uh, ma’am, if you’ll just follow me, I’ll get you onto the hovership.” The young man, Jesse, said quietly.

“It does not appear I have much of a choice.” She said, her voice wavering slightly.

“No, ma’am. Doesn’t seem like you do.” He said with an angry edge to his voice, guiding her to a ladder leading to the roof of the car. Angela sat down in the seat of the hovercraft with a huff. Jesse sat down next to her on her left, buckling his seatbelt and motioning for her to do the same. She stared at him defiantly.

“Heh, suit yourself, ma’am. Can’t guarantee it’ll be a smooth ride. Parker ain’t the smoothest flyin’ pilot, and I’d bet we’re gonna have some people that are pretty mad at us comin’ after us. I appreciate you’re a fighter, but this may be one ya don’t want to risk.” The cowboy said, laughing and kicking his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. Angela sighed, reached over, and fastened her seatbelt.

“That ain’t so hard is it?” One of the men loading the craft laughed as he slid a box against the opposite wall.

“Not gonna help us McCree?” One of the other men said, as he hoisted a box into the craft.

“You heard Joe. Told me to watch her, so that’s what I’m doing.” Jesse said, tipping his cowboy hat over his eyes and lighting up a cigar. The cabin was soon filled with a slight haze and the strong stench of cigar smoke. Angela could feel her eyes start to well up and her throat start to become irritated from the sting of the smoke. She held off for as long as she could, but after one particularly large puff she began to cough vigorously.

“Must you smoke that in here?” Angela said between coughing fits.

“Sorry ma’am, didn’t realize it would bother you.”

“Well, it does.”

“Alright then.” He said, putting the cigar out against the steel armrest.

“Thank you.” She replied, more than a little surprised that he had actually done as she asked. The two of them sat in silence for a few more moments as the rest of the crew continued to load the craft up with boxes. 

“You’re hurt.” The cowboy said, motioning down to her knee. Angela shrugged in response, refusing to look at him. “Here,” he said, pulling a red bandanna out of his pocket and wetting it with a canteen strapped to his hip.

“Danke.” She glanced up at him, making brief eye contact, before taking the bandanna from him and using it to sponge some of the drying blood and grime off of her scuffed knee. She handed it back to him a few moments later with a nod, and he stuffed it into a pocket at his side. A few more minutes of silence passed between them before Joe climbed into the hovercraft.

“Welp, that’s the last of ‘em.” He said, sitting down to Angela’s right side, “And just in the nick of time too! Looks like we’ve got some company comin’ in hot. Parker? Get us out of here.”

“Right away, sir.” The pilot said, closing the loading door.

“Hang on tight, girlie.” Joe said with a yellow smile, “Things may be gettin’ a bit bumpy.” The hovercraft lurched and started as the engines began to whir more and more loudly. It sluggishly lifted into the air and began to pick up speed.

“We don’t got a lot of maneuverability with these crates, boss. Might be we’re sittin’ ducks.” the pilot yelled from the front of the craft.

“Well, then I suggest you get up to speed as quick as you can, and hope those modifications you made keep us ahead of them.” Joe yelled in return, “I sure as hell ain’t droppin’ any of the cargo. I’ll drop you first, ya hear me?”

“I hear ya, Joe.” A loud bang reverberated around the cabin as the craft lurched a bit to the left.

“God damn it!” Joe yelled as a second blast rocked the cabin, “If the rest of the boys don’t get their light craft in the air soon, I swear by all that is good and holy I will kill them myself if we get out of this. Parker! Status on the fighters!”

“They’re gettin’ into the air. Gonna start messin’ with those police craft soon.” Parker yelled back from the pilot’s chair as the cabin was rocked again by another blast. Angela tightened her grasp against the cold metal of the armrests, praying to anyone that was listening that she would get out of this alive and, hopefully, be rescued. Scheisse but she hated flying.

“Just get us out of here Parker. We’ve stayed around too long as it is. I knew runnin’ two missions at the same time was a bad idea.” Joe said under his breath, unbuckling his seatbelt and walking over to the wall of the hovercraft to push a button. The side bay door slid open, and a machine gun with a chair rose from the floor. Joe sat in the chair, strapped himself in and began to fire the machine gun behind them. The craft was rocked again, lurched, and sharply descended. Angela closed her eyes tightly, feeling as though her stomach rising into her throat. She felt something hit hard across her chest and stomach. She opened her eyes and looked over to the cowboy on her left. His eyes were closed and his right arm was firmly across her center, helping to hold her firmly in place. The plane evened out a bit, gaining some altitude, and Angela kept her eyes on the man next to her for a few moments longer.

“Sorry, ma’am. He said, opening his eyes and sheepishly drawing his right hand back towards himself, “Can’t say I’m a fan of flying.” Angela did not respond, instead turning her attention back to the man manning the machine gun.

“Lazy sons of bitches are finally doing their jobs, god damn.” Joe said, stopping the incessant firing, “With any luck they’ll do a good enough job holding them off that we’ll get back home.” Joe sat down again next to Angela. “Can’t you fly this thing any faster? I’m gonna die of old age first if we don’t get a move on.”

“Fast as she goes sir. Hard to get any speed goin’ with a thousand pounds of gold weighin’ her down.” Joe huffed at this and settled back against the seat.

“Then I guess we better hope our boys know what they’re doin’.” Joe grumbled, lighting a cigarette and filling the cabin with smoke.

“They know what they’re doing.” Jesse laughed “Gonna be smooth sailin’ home, trust me.”

The hum of the ship was the only sound that broke the silence in the cabin, as the whirring and blasting fire of the police ships and gang ships faded away. Angela looked out the still open side door and watched the sky as it turned purple, pink, and gold in the distance and tried not to cry.


	2. Chapter Two

The ship touched down a little after dusk, and as the whir of the engines decreased, Angela finally allowed herself to release her grip on the armrests.

“Another mission accomplished.” Joe laughed, standing up and stretching, “And now that we’ve landed,” Joe took a set of zip-ties out of his pocket, grabbed both of Angela’s hands, and zip-tied them together.

“There, now you won’t be gettin’ any ideas when we let you out of the ship.” He winked at her with a laugh and patted her on the cheek.

“Jesse, if you wouldn’t mind keepin’ an eye on our good little doctor in the ship here, I’m gonna go tell Ashe about our success. Sure she’ll send someone in in a minute to take over for you.” Jesse seethed, but nodded in agreement.

“Sure, I can keep an eye on her. And you let Ashe know that me and her are gonna have words once things are all settled.” He said through gritted teeth.

Joe distractedly waved his hand over his shoulder as he walked down the ramp and out of sight.

 

The cabin bustled with activity as men, women, and omnics began to unload the crates lining the floor of the hovercraft. They shouted and laughed and clapped each other on the back, congratulating themselves for accomplishing their goal. Angela sat in her seat, hands tied together and folded on her lap as Jesse sat next to her and sighed.

“I’d like to apologize, ma’am, for the rough treatment you’ve had so far. Joe, he’s a good guy, mostly, but he tends to get a bit, uh, overzealous at times.” Angela turned and looked at him, angrily wanting to give him a piece of her mind, but then remembered her situation and realized that anything she would say would only make things worse. Instead she bit her tongue and stared at a grease spot on the wall across from her seat.

“Our gang,” Jesse continued, wincing slightly “we ain’t ever been the type to kidnap before. Don’t know what Ashe was thinkin’ nabbing you. Sure we’ve robbed lots of people, but it was just things, and I still don’t know why you’re here. Shoot, I’m doin’ a lot of the talkin’ here, ain’t I? I do that when I’m nervous. Not that I’m nervous, I just can’t figure out what’s goin’ on here and it’s driving me nuts.”

They sat in silence for a few moments before Angela turned and looked over at the cowboy once again.

“For not being the type to kidnap, your people certainly seem to have no qualms with killing innocent bystanders.” Angela spat

“Killing innocent…? I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about ma’am, we ain’t never…”

“Well, your man Joe certainly did. He had his men murder a car full of passengers in cold blood to remove any witnesses. Forgive me if I don’t believe you when you say that kidnapping is outside of the realm of possibility for you.” Jesse’s face turned ashen white and he did not respond for a few minutes, fiddling with the brim of the cowboy hat sitting in his lap.

“That don’t sound like something we would do,” He finally responded, “but if you’re saying that’s what you saw, I believe you. Joe’s new. Well, new-ish. Don’t think he’d be working under Ashe’s orders, doing something like that, but no matter what, it looks like I got something more to say to her after we’re done here.”

“And this ‘Ashe’ is?”

“The boss, leader of our gang here.”

“Ah, so she is the one who ordered my kidnapping.”

“No! Well, to be honest I’m not sure. Don’t sound like her, but Joe knows better than to go working on his own. Gonna have to talk with her about that.”

“So your ‘gang’ does not condone killing or kidnapping, what exactly is it you do then?”

“Steal, mostly. Rich folks who won’t miss it anyways, or things for people who pay us well.”

“And apparently young doctors who are minding their own business, ja?”

“Listen this wasn’t my idea…”

“But you went along with it, did you not?”

Jesse opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by the sound of heavy boots stomping up the gangplank. A gargantuan omnic poked its head into the ship and waved at Jesse.

“Hey Bob. Take it you’re here to take the girl?” Jesse said with a sigh. The omnic nodded silently.

“And I take it Ashe wants to see me?” Jesse continued. The omnic nodded again.

“Alright then. Ma’am.” Jesse said, tipping his hat towards Angela and making his way down the gangplank out of sight. The omnic reached down and cut the zip ties from around her wrists. He then stretched out his other hand towards Angela. She took it, stood up, and followed him down into the yard. The omnic placed a hand on her shoulder and softly pushed her in front of him and out of the ship.

*******************************************

The packed red dirt floor sent up small puffs of dust under foot, causing the desert floor next to the cliff to be filled with a soft dusty haze. Soft electrical light allowed the dimly lit gang members to complete their work, as they bustled around unloading the plane and doing mechanical repairs on the cargo ship and smaller craft parked on the ground. A few acknowledged Jesse as he walked past, and he greeted them back with a nod. He pulled a cigar out of his pocket and stuffed it in his mouth, cupping his hand around it so he could light it while he was walking. He took several puffs from it, trying to calm himself down. He was angry, growing more livid by the second as he stalked his way towards Ashe’s door. He pushed open the door without knocking, walked over to the table in the middle of the room, and slammed his hands down.

“What the hell was that Ashe?” He yelled at the platinum blonde sitting across from him with her feet up on the table, crossed at the ankles.

“I’d say it’s a mission accomplished. Thought you’d be comin’ in here to celebrate, Jesse.” Ashe laughed, pushing her hat brim up and taking a swig from the green bottle on her desk.

“The gold, sure. But since when is the Deadlock Gang the group to kidnap an innocent girl and murder civilians?”

“It’s all part of the gig, Jesse. I’m sure you knew that when we started this. Besides, what’d we get this all started for anyways? We’re in this to make money, and by god is that girl gonna make us a lot of money.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say our gang has gotten noticed by some people with a lot of power, a lot of influence, and a whole hell of a lot of money. They wanted the girl, so I said we would get her. The gold was just a bonus.”

“So you told Joe to do that while I got the gold.”

“Figured if one of y’all got stopped we’d at least have one haul. It took a hell of a lot of plannin’ to get this together, and I think it went off without a hitch Jesse, we just robbed a fuckin’ Mag-Lev train! The whole country is gonna be buzzin’ about this one!”

“Sure, we accomplished the mission. I just don’t think that I’d call murdering a car of civilians ‘without a hitch’”

“Joe is one of the best members of this gang we’ve got. He ain’t let me down once. Told him to do whatever he saw as necessary to complete the mission. If he ordered his crew to kill some people, I trust him to have done the right thing for the mission.”

“Don’t think I’d ever see what he did as the right thing.”

“Got us the girl, didn’t it? You don’t know these guys who hired us like I do. If we get in on their good side? We’re gonna be rollin’ in money. They’ve got money, power, and influence and we could really make a name for ourselves if we get on their good side.”

“As kidnappers and murderers. Don’t know if that’s the kind of name I want to be making.”

“Hey! You and I are on the same team, got it? I don’t like it any more than you do but we’ve got to do what we have to to get ahead, and I don’t appreciate you challenging my leadership on this. Joe said you were talkin’ back to him on the mission as well.”

“Figured someone had to say somethin’. Last I checked the Deadlocks weren’t about killing and kidnapping innocent people.”

“Can’t have people disobeying my orders during a mission, Jesse, you know that. Can’t let you get away with it, neither.”

“Gonna beat me in front of the rest of the crew like you did with Matt last month?”

“Ha! You didn’t steal from the group, Jesse. Besides, you’re one of my top men. So no. I am grounding you for the next mission, though. And you won’t get a cut of the payout from the next few, neither.”

“What?”

“Like I said, can’t have people thinkin’ it’s okay to go against orders or question my authority. Gotta keep the people in line. Business, you understand. And before you go sayin’ anything,” she continued, cutting his protests off with a swipe of her hand, “Someone’s gotta stay back to babysit the girl anyways. If you don’t I can leave Joe to keep an eye on her.” Jesse quieted at this, biting down hard on his cigar. Ashe smirked and swung her legs off her desk. She stretched her arms and back with several audible pops.

“Nothing left to say? Good, looks like we’re settled then. Gonna be shippin’ out to our next job at the ass crack of dawn, so I need you to leave so I’m gonna try to get some shut-eye. If you wouldn’t mind closin’ the door behind you on the way out?” She said, with an exaggerated yawn. Jesse turned quickly and stomped out of the door, slamming it behind him as he left.

************************************************************

Angela sat on her cot with her knees tucked against her chest in a small, dark, concrete room. There was a small, barred window at the top of the wall that she could barely see through if she stood on her tiptoes. Not that there was much of a point in looking through the window, since all she could see was dirt and the occasional set of booted feet walking past. She was still wearing the dirty sweater and leggings she had been wearing on the train, and she felt herself starting to shiver, though she was uncertain whether she was shivering from the plummeting evening temperatures or from the epinephrine that was still coursing through her system. She felt angry and scared and sad and numb. And helpless. So very, helpless.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid.” She whispered to herself. She knew, she KNEW that there is nothing she could have done. That if she had struggled she would still be where she was sitting now, but potentially with more injuries, but she couldn’t help but replay every beat of the conversation, wondering what she could have done differently. If only she had flown, or sat in a different train car, or wore something with pockets so she could hide her cellphone, or asked for an armed escort, or…

“It’s not your fault, there’s nothing you could have done.” She had told patients these things a thousand times when giving bad news, and the words rang hollow even then. They brought her no comfort now. 

 

She jumped as she heard the key scraping against the lock breaking her from her reverie. The heavy metal door swung open with a loud creak to reveal two figures. The first she recognized from earlier as Bob, the large omnic who had escorted her to her cell in the first place. The second was a young woman around her age with white-blonde hair and a large rifle strapped to her back.

“Well, so this is our prisoner. Hope the ride over here wasn’t too bad.” the woman said with a smirk as she walked further into the room, Bob closing and locking the door behind her. Angela shrugged, not answering but also not taking her eyes off of the woman. The woman looked down at a datapad in her hands, then back up at her. She smiled broadly and nodded, handing the device back to Bob who put it in a vest pocket.

“Had to make sure for myself that we got the right girl. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Doctor Ziegler. Name’s Ashe. I run the show around here. Now from what I hear from Joe, you put up a bit of a struggle. Now, that ain’t no way to treat your hosts is it?” she laughed coming up closer to her cot. Angela wanted nothing more than to back away, but instead she sat up straighter and looked the woman straight in the face.

“I can promise you things will go much smoother for you if you just quiet down and go along with anything we tell you to do. Ain’t so hard is it?” Ashe smirked, crossing her arms across her chest.

“What are you hoping to accomplish by kidnapping me? You know people will be looking for me, and they will find me.” Angela asked, trying to keep her voice from wavering.

“I know, sweetheart, which is why we ain’t keeping you here for long.” she laughed, backing away and waving her hand for Bob to follow. They exited the cell and closed the door with a loud bang, turning the key in the lock. 

“You got the right girl, Joe, congrats.” Angela heard Ashe holler down the hallway before Angela was left alone again. She found she was shaking, though in fear or anger she was not quite sure.

***************************************************

Alone in her cell, Angela was shivering. The temperature continued to drop as night covered the desert. She took the thin, rough sheet off of the cot and wrapped it around her, searching for warmth and finding none. She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the pang in her stomach and find some sleep. She heard a light knock on the door and she jumped a bit, gasping slightly in surprise.

“Y-yes?” She said quietly

“Ma’am? It’s Jesse. I sat next to you on the hovercraft. I, uh, I brought you some food.”

“You can come in.” She responded almost reflexively in a small, scared voice that somehow made her even more upset with herself. She heard the clanking of keys outside of the door and the turning of the lock. The door swung open slowly, letting a blinding stream of fluorescent light into the room, causing Angela to blink quickly to keep her eyes from watering. Once her eyes adjusted she noticed that Jesse looked angry about something. Fear started to well up inside of her until she noticed he was staring intently at her left cheek. She lifted her hand, wincing as she felt a raised area where Joe had slapped her earlier, and realized that she must have a bruise. She hadn’t even realized.

“It’s not much.” He said, looking away from her cheek and setting the tray by her on the bed, “Had to beg the cook to let me grab this out of the mess as it was, but figured that you’d be hungry.” Angela looked over at the tray, which held two biscuits, some baby carrots, and a bowl of some sort of brothy soup. She looked away from the tray and down, pressing her forehead into her knees. Jesse shifted his weight to his left and tapped the toe of his right boot onto the hard concrete ground, causing his spur to make a soft jangling sound that echoed through the almost empty cell. Jesse cleared his throat again, swept his hat off of his head, and glanced towards the exit, as if unsure of what to do or say.

“I’m sure it’s been a long day for you.” Jesse said quietly, breaking the silence. Angela snorted derisively. Jesse paused for a moment, fidgeting with the brim of his hat he held in his hands.

“I suppose you don’t want me here. I know I wouldn’t in your spot. Just thought I’d let you know that I’m gonna be in charge of keeping an eye on you for the next few days. The others are leavin’ for a mission or something, so it’ll just be the two of us. I’m sorry for all of this. Like I said earlier, it ain’t like us to kidnap someone. Or at least it didn’t use to be. I’ll let you get some sleep. I can leave the tray and swap it out for some breakfast in the mornin’. Like I said, my name is Jesse, Jesse McCree. Don’t know if I got the chance to properly introduce myself earlier. Probably not considering... Anyways, like I said, I’ll, uh, I’ll leave you be.” The cowboy blurted out. He quickly turned and walked back over to the door.

He glanced over his shoulder one more time, looking at the woman curled in the corner. Angela did not move or say anything more to acknowledge his presence. He closed the door behind him and turned the lock leaving Angela in darkness once again. The cowboy’s visit had given her a shred of hope. If he was the one watching her, then there may be a chance, even if it was a small one, that she’d be able to convince him to let her go. It wasn’t likely, she knew it was almost impossible, but that one shred of hope was all she had and it was enough to help her to fall into a fitful sleep.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter! I've got a bunch more written, I just haven't had much time to edit it. Thanks for all the hits and kudos! Hope you enjoy!

Angela awoke the next morning to the sound of shouts and footsteps outside of the small window of her cell. She shivered slightly, rubbing her shoulders quickly trying to warm up. She stood up on her cot on tiptoe, trying to glance out of her window to see what was happening. She saw a few different pairs of boots pass by her window, but couldn’t see much more than that. It was early, judging by the soft, golden pink light illuminating what little she could see. She hadn’t slept much, but she hadn’t really expected to. Whenever she had closed her eyes, her limbic system had continued to show her scenes from the day. The feeling of Joe’s hand around her wrist, the sound of gunshots, the sting of the slap across her face, the fear, the humiliation. She had prided herself in having a good memory, it had helped her become the doctor she was, but at that moment she would have given anything she had to forget. She sat down on her cot, listening to the footsteps, shouts, and conversations of the people outside. Nothing really stood out until she heard a voice that made her blood run cold.

“Hey, hey! What do y’all think we’re runnin’ here, a circus? Get a move on or you’re gonna end up with my boot up your ass!” she heard Joe’s voice ring out above the crowd. She could feel her heart rate increasing, and her breaths getting quicker and more shallow. Her hands turned cold and clammy and she sat down on her cot. She knew, she KNEW he couldn’t see her, couldn’t possibly, but it didn’t stop her blood from running cold. Her heart leapt into her throat as she heard a soft knock on the metal door of her cell.

“Ma’am? It’s Jesse. Just bringin’ you some breakfast.” Angela didn’t respond, her heart beating so quickly she did not trust herself to speak.

“I can, uh, I can come back later if this is a bad time, or if you’re sleepin’ or something.” He continued after a few moments. Angela heard the cowboy shuffle his feet. She heard the toe of his boot tap against the concrete floor and the soft tinging sound of his spur. She held her breath, waiting for the grating metal on metal sound of the key turning in the lock.

“Well, I’ll be back in a bit then. Let you get some sleep.” She heard him say, and she heard his echoing footsteps retreating away from her door. 

She let out a breath she didn’t realize that she had been holding. Her heart was still beating rapidly, but she could feel it start to slow. She didn’t hear Joe’s voice anymore, either, which was helping her fight or flight reflex to slow down and eventually stop.

She heard the footsteps and shouts outside of her window grow more and more quiet and, eventually, the sound of hoverships flying off into the distance. Then, silence. Time passed, likely a few hours judging by the changing light outside. With nothing to occupy her time, Angela felt herself growing restless. She had never been good at sitting still, always having to attend clinic, round on wards, scrub in for surgery, or study until her eyes hurt and her brain went fuzzy from reading. Sitting in an almost empty room with nothing to do was its own special brand of torture. She walked the five or so feet across the room to the door. She turned around and looked, taking full stock of what was there in the light of day. A narrow cot with a thin mattress, a thin blanket, and a thin pillow, her window, a toilet and a sink hugging the left wall of the room, the tray of food next to her cot, untouched from the night before. She walked back over to the cot and took her boots off, she hadn’t noticed that she was still wearing them. She laid down on her cot, staring up at the ceiling and began reciting antibiotics in her head, hoping, now that Joe was nowhere near her, that she would finally get some sleep. She must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew she was waking up to a light knock on the door once again.

“Ma’am? It’s me again, Jesse. I know you probably don’t want to see me, hell I don’t think I would want to see anyone if I were you, but I brought you some lunch. Need to grab the tray from last night, too, before it goes bad or the rats start getting to it.” Angela sat up and blearily rubbed her eyes, yawning a bit.

“You may enter.” She said, realizing how strange it was that her captor was asking for her permission to enter her cell. The key turned in the lock, and light from the hallway spilled into the room.

“Can’t say the food is any good. The cook is taking the week off on account of everyone else being on a heist and it basically just being the two of us here, so I made it myself. Luckily sandwiches ain’t too hard.” Jesse said, walking into the room without bothering to close the door behind him. He set the tray next to her on the bed, and grabbed the other tray off the floor. Angela didn’t say anything, but picked the sandwich off of the plate and took a small bite. Roast beef sandwiches were not her favorite, but after not eating anything for almost an entire day, she was very hungry.

“Thank you.” She said, glancing up at him.

“Ain’t no problem at all, ma’am. Uh, anything else you need while you’re, uh, staying here?” He said uncomfortably. “Course I say staying here, like this was some fancy big city hotel and not a jail cell. Can’t imagine that cot over there is too comfortable, but if you need anything, um, just let me know?” When Angela didn’t respond he turned to leave. He stood in the doorway for a few moments, shifting his weight back and forth on his feet.

“I’d like to apologize, ma’am, for my gang. We ain’t never been the kind to do something like this, and as soon as Ashe gets back I’m gonna try to talk her into letting you go. I’m sorry.” Angela did not respond, staring past him into the middle distance, refusing to meet his gaze. He waited a few more seconds, before she once again was left alone in silence as the door closed behind him.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be the second half of the previous chapter, but like I said, editing. Hope you enjoy the story!

The yard was strange when it was empty. Jesse had never realized how used to the general commotion of the gang he had gotten until it was gone. Now, he was bored out of his skull. He’d practiced trick shots, tried and failed to bake a cake, thrown pebbles into a bucket, brought lunch to the girl, gone for a run, did a few push ups, tried and failed to bake some cookies, read a few chapters of a western book he’d stolen from town, and cleaned his room top to bottom and it was still only about two in the afternoon. Jesse wasn’t a loner by nature. Hell, that’s the reason he and Ashe had formed the gang in the first place, so neither of them would have to be alone. And now, less than a day into his solitude, he was lonely as hell. He took apart his six shooter and began cleaning the parts, even though he was aware that he had just done so last night and that everything was in pristine condition. He sighed, looking at the clock again and fidgeting with the hammer of his gun. In two hours he could probably start making some supper, then he could see the girl for another five minutes (he tried not to think about how that was the only thing he was looking forward to for the day), then he could watch one of the three holovids in the common room that he could tolerate and hope he fell asleep quickly. He sighed and quickly reassembled his pistol.

_“Course,”_ he thought, _“no one would know if the girl weren't in her cell the WHOLE time...”_ Almost without conscious thought, he sauntered over to the laundry, rifling through the piles of clothes that had been abandoned or forgotten until he found a pair of denim shorts that looked like they might fit the girl, as well as a thin, white and blue plaid shirt and a black camisole. He thought for a moment more, then grabbed a pair of flannel pants and a black hoodie with “Raiders” printed on it in big block letters. Satisfied with his haul, he walked over to the girl’s cell door and knocked, waiting for a response.

“Yes?” he heard the high, muffled voice from the other side of the door.

“Ma’am? It’s Jesse again. Seeing as how we’re the only two here, so no one can beat my ass for asking, would you like to get out of your cell for a few hours? I’ve got some clean clothes and can walk you over to the showers. I mean if that’s what you want. You can stay here too, I’m not trying to make you do anything, just...” He trailed off, mentally kicking himself. He could charm anyone with a few smooth words and a wink, but for some reason this girl was turning him into a blathering idiot. A few moments of silence passed and Jesse almost decided to leave.

“You may come in.” He heard her say, and he quickly grabbed the key from the side of his hip and opened the door. A wave of dry, mid afternoon desert heat flowed out of the room as the door opened. He noticed that she had hardly moved from the position she was sitting in that morning, but her sweater was off, revealing a white tank top undershirt, and her leggings were rolled up above her calves. Jesse winced slightly as he clearly saw the bloody scrape on her knee and the deepening bruise that had bloomed across her cheek. She stood up and looked at him almost quizzically, before grabbing the proffered clothes out of his hands.

“Now, uh, if you’ll just follow me, the showers are this way.” He turned and walked quickly down the hall and heard her soft footsteps behind him. They walked in silence for the most part, as Jesse kept trying to think of what he could say to make conversation.

“Sorry we kidnapped you yesterday, no hard feelings right?” Jesse thought sarcastically, “Great conversation starter, that”. He let the girl into the shower room, showed her his soap and shampoo for her to use (wouldn’t need another reason for Ashe or one of the other girls to be mad at him when they get back), handed her a clean towel, and sat in a folding chair outside of the door with his hat pulled low over his face.

************

The tepid water felt like heaven. Angela revelled in the feeling of washing the grit and grime from the day before, noticing but unbothered by the shampoo and soap she was using having a distinctly masculine scent. She spent much longer than she normally did in the shower, but she decided that she deserved it. The gang could foot the water bill (or not, she supposed, as they were likely stealing that, too). Besides, the cowboy, “Jesse McCree” her mind supplied, hadn’t given her a time limit and didn’t seem like the type to barge in on a girl when she was showering. She hadn’t known him for long, but something was different about him. He was attractive, she would have to be blind not to see that, with his smooth, deep voice, his soft brown eyes, and his cocky smirk. He hadn’t treated her like a prisoner, even though that’s what she was. He’d been kind to her, something she certainly had not expected from her kidnappers.

“Gott im himmel, Angela, don’t go developing Stockholm Syndrome simply because he is not cruel.” She muttered under her breath. She was smart. Far too intelligent to allow even the slightest thought of this to enter her mind. Determined to put the idea out of her mind, she stepped out of the shower and dried off, twisting her hair into the towel on her head and got dressed in the new clothes. The shorts were a little snug and the shirt and hoodie were oversized, but it felt wonderful to be out of her grimy and bloodied clothes from the day before. She looked at herself in the mirror, glanced at the purple and black bruise that had blossomed over the left side of her face, and started finger combing her hair, working out the knots as best she could before sweeping it up into a messy bun. Satisfied with her work, she gathered up her dirty clothes in a lump and walked out into the hall. She heard a soft snore and looked over to see that the cowboy had fallen asleep in a chair next to the door. She reached out to touch his shoulder trying to gently shake him awake. He jumped at her touch, then yawned a bit and tilted his hat back to look at her. He had that same look of...was it surprise? when he first saw her as he always seemed to, but it was soon replaced by a small smirk that sent a flutter directly to her stomach in spite of the conversation she had had with herself earlier.

“Took you long enough, ma’am.” he smirked, stretching his arms above his head

“I was unaware that there was a time limit.” she said indignantly, though her usually clear and confident voice was a bit thick from lack of use.

“There wasn’t, I was just messing with you.” he laughed, “Let me take you by the laundry, then I can bring you back to your, uh, room.” His demeanor quieted and they walked the rest of the way in silence. Angela could feel her dread growing with every step towards her cell.

“Is there a way I could have a better blanket for the night? It gets very cold.” She said as they approached the door.

“Of course! I should have thought about that earlier. I usually run pretty warm, but the desert does get pretty darned cold at night.” he said apologetically. When she didn’t respond, he opened the door and let her back in. However, he did not immediately close and lock the door behind her, and instead stood in the open doorway, shuffling back and forth on his feet and glancing around.

“Is there something else that you wanted to say?” She asked

“Well, yeah, actually. Don’t know if I’m supposed to let you out of your cell at all, but I already did once, and besides there ain’t nobody here who can yell at me for it. I’m going topside if you want to come with.” Angela looked at him quizically for a moment, unsure whether he was sincere. However, when he hadn’t continued, she nodded briefly, and she saw his demeanor immediately shift towards being more relaxed. He motioned for her to follow him and started walking down the hall. Angela scurried to catch up. With his height and long strides she felt like she had to take two steps for each one of his, but after noticing this he slowed his pace. After several winding turns, they arrived at a staircase leading up towards a door. A wave of hot, dry air hit her as soon as the door was opened, quickly evaporating any remaining moisture from her shower.

It was completely still and empty outside, in stark contrast to how things had been the night before. Angela blinked against the brightness of the mid-afternoon sun as her pale blue eyes adjusted. She surveyed the area, looking desperately for any signs of life or means of escape, but the red dirt desert spread out as far as she could see in every direction, except for where her view was blocked by the cliff. There were no ships or cars parked anywhere, other than a single black hovercycle leaning up against the top portion of the concrete bunker that was otherwise nestled into the ground. She tried to study the hovercycle for a few seconds as discreetly as she could. She had never driven one, but she was sure she could figure it out. It was her only obvious method of escape, since she realized setting off on foot across the desert would almost certainly end in her death. She jumped slightly as McCree nudged her with his arm, then they began to walk along the wall of the cliff.

“Just realized I never got your name, ma’am.” McCree said, breaking the silence of the desert.

“Doctor Angela Ziegler.” She responded curtly, “And you do not have to call me ‘ma’am’. It makes me feel like I am eighty instead of eighteen.”

“Sorry ma-, miss, um, doc. Force of habit, manners, and all that.”

“It is quite alright.” A few more moments of silence passed between them as they walked farther along.

“Don’t think I’ve ever met a doc as young as you. Last one we had around here was sixty or so and looked older cause of his drinking. You’re the same age as me, or thereabouts.”

“Yes, well, I did an accelerated course of study. I graduated from medical school at fourteen.”

“Shoot, fourteen is right about when I dropped out of high school! Never was much good at sitting still, shutting up, and listening.” he laughed

“I suppose it is not for everyone.”

The pair walked in silence for a few minutes, the sounds of the desert only broken by the soft sounds of their footsteps on the packed red earth of the desert.

“What’d you do after that, after med school?” McCree asked, turning to look over and down at her.

“Yes, well, I did my surgery residency as I was working on my PhD in Zurich, and was asked by to complete my research and fellowship with...in Grand Mesa.” Angela replied, trailing off a bit at the end.

“In Grand Mesa. That’s where you were headed when they, when we...”

“Kidnapped me, yes.”

“Yeah.” He seemed a bit uncomfortable, as Angela waited to see if he had anything more to say.

“And decided to hold me here indefinitely.” She said after he did not continue

“Not indefinitely, no.” he replied quickly

“Ah, so there was a reason for my abduction.” she said, trying to sound nonchalant

“Yeah, Ashe said someone’s paying us for it.”

“Money. I suppose I should have guessed. Did she say who was it that ordered my abduction?”

“No. Someone with a lot of power, or money, or more likely both. Said that it’d put our little gang on the map. Make it so we were all set for life.” Angela scoffed at this, and the pair fell into silence once again.

_“Of course,”_ she thought, _“Of course they kidnapped me for someone else and not simply for ransom. Scheisse I have to figure out a way to get out of here before whoever hired them arrives.”_


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter! With Christmas coming up, time for editing has been a bit hit or miss. Hope you guys are enjoying the story!

The next days passed by in a blur. Every morning McCree would bring in cereal or scrambled eggs for breakfast, walk her to the showers, take her outside for a bit, then take her back to her cell. Although Angela found herself going a little crazy with boredom, she did appreciate that McCree (her captor she found she had to keep reminding herself) was a perfect gentleman. He had brought her a blanket, supplied her with clean clothes, always knocked before entering, and even brought her some books from around the base (scandalous Western romances, mostly, though she found they did make the time pass quickly). She shuddered at the thought that she could have been left behind to be all alone with someone less kind, though she also wished she had been left with someone who would have accidentally left her door unlocked.

One afternoon, just around dinnertime, judging by the quality of the light streaming through her small window, she heard a sharp, insistent knock at the door to her cell.

“Doc? Sorry to bother you, but I was chopping vegetables for dinner and I sliced up my hand pretty good. Is it okay, I mean, would you mind taking a look at it.” Jesse's voice rang out from the hallway.

“No, no of course I do not mind.” Angela said, standing and walking to the door. The door swung open with a creak and she saw Jesse standing in front of her, his normally deeply tanned skin looking almost pale. He swayed on his feet a little bit and she saw the white kitchen towel he had wrapped around his hand was covered in bright red splotches of blood.

“Do you have an infirmary? What happened?” Angela said as the cowboy nodded and started wobbling down the hall.

“Had a doc in the gang once, his room was this way. Like I said, chopping vegetables. Wasn’t really paying attention when I tried to get an avocado pit out by whacking it with a knife like they do in some of them chef shows and it goes right through the pit and slices across my hand.” he said, swaying slightly on his feet.

“Are you alright? You look as though you are about to faint.” Angela said, placing her hand on his left elbow to support him, grabbing his bicep with her other hand. She was surprised to find that even though he looked thin, even scrawny, his bicep was hard and strong under her hand. She felt a flutter erupt in her stomach before shaking it off to focus her concern back on her captor turned patient.

“Sure, sure I’m gonna be fine.” he said in a high pitched voice that did nothing to assuage Angela’s worries, “It’s just, well, injuries usually don’t bother me none, but when I was a kid I saw a man get his hand stuck in an auger and it was pretty mangled up and he was screaming something awful and I threw up. Ever since then, I haven’t been able to deal with people’s hands getting hurt, specially not my own.” Angela saw that his face was somehow even more pale as he continued talking about it, so she tried to change the subject.

“Do you cook often? When everyone is here, that is.”

“Hah, well, doc, I like to eat so yeah. We do have a cook here, but the food he makes is more quantity over quality. Specially on surprise stew night,” he shuddered slightly in disgust, “Those nights for sure I’ll sneak into the kitchen and whip up something for myself.”

“Where did you learn how to cook?”

“My ma and pa both taught me. Ma was more of a baker, pa cooked most everything else. Ma was kind of a disaster with anything that weren’t cooked in an oven, but her baking was magic. It’s one of my earliest memories. Couldn’t have been more than four or five or so when I remember standing in the kitchen following my ma’s instructions on how to properly measure something to bake a cake. Tasted like heaven. Pa came home to both of us passed out on the couch, covered in flour and chocolate frosting.” McCree started talking about the memory and Angela noted with satisfaction that some of the color had returned to his cheeks. She was less concerned about him falling over in the hallway, but she told herself that it was her professional responsibility to maintain her hold on his arm until they reached the gang's former physician’s office. 

“Right in here, ma’am.” Jesse said, gesturing for her to enter the room ahead of him. The room was musty, poorly lit, and smelled like stale beer and tobacco smoke. Cautious to not inhale the rancid air too deeply, Angela motioned for Jesse to sit on the examination table (which she noted looked like it had not been cleaned for a while) and looked around the cabinets. No betadine, but she found some alcohol swabs which she supposed would do in a pinch. She found a few 4-0 silk sutures, a serviceable needle driver, and pickups. No lidocaine, unfortunately, oh but she wished she had her nanosurgery lab; it was so much more clean and painless and efficient. She cleaned the needle driver and pickups as best she could, all the while keeping an eye on the cowboy on the table. Wouldn't do to have her patient fall off and hit his head.

“Alright, McCree, I am going to unwrap your hand. I do not think it would be a good idea for you to watch.”

“Don’t worry, doc, I wasn’t planning on it.” he gulped, looking up towards the ceiling and closing his eyes with a deep breath, the color draining from his face once more.

“And if I do need to stitch it, I am sorry that there is no numbing medication.”

“It’s alright, just work fast.” he said, taking deep breaths and keeping his eyes firmly shut. Angela unwrapped the towel from his hand and looked at the wound. She examined his hand. His skin was rougher than she expected, calluses built from years of hard work covering his surprisingly large hand. She ignored the fluttering feeling in her stomach and tried not to imagine how his rough hands would feel holding her. She looked at the wound. It was still oozing blood and after some probing, she did see that it was not deep enough to need stitches.

“Alright, McCree, it does not look so bad. I need you to run your hand under the water in the sink for a few minutes to make sure it is as clean as possible before I bandage you up. Do you have your tetanus vaccination?" he nodded his assent, "Good. It does not look like you will need stitches, but my professional recommendation is to avoid avocados for the next day or so.” Angela said teasingly. McCree let out a large breath of air and laughed a bit.

“Don’t you worry, doc, I won’t be messing with that again.” Angela waited for him to rinse his hand, then wash it with soap and water, before laying gauze on it and wrapping it in a white bandage.

“There. Now, do not get your hand wet or dirty for a while. We will check it in a few days to see if it has healed.”

“Thanks, doc.” he said, hesitating for a bit. He extended his right, uninjured hand, which Angela took and shook firmly.

“I’ll, uh, take you back to your room, then. Dinner shouldn’t be too long. Probably won't have any guacamole, though.”

It was only later when the happiness she felt at being able to practice medicine faded that Angela realized that she had completely glanced over the numerous scalpels sitting in the drawer in the infirmary. She could have armed herself and threatened him into allowing her to escape. She berated herself for being so stupid as to not even be thinking of how she could use the situation to leave this place, but at the same time she knew that even if the thought had crossed her mind it was likely she would not have been able to carry it out. Although the cowboy seemed kind enough, she was highly aware that he carried an old fashioned revolver on him, and her attempt to use a scalpel as a weapon would have ended poorly for her. And even if she had escaped she had no way of travelling across the desert to safety. Regardless, she couldn’t help but lay awake in bed and run the situation in her mind over and over again trying to decide what she could have done differently until she fell into a fitful sleep.


	6. Chapter Six

On the fifth morning after her capture, Angela again woke to the sound of soft knocking at the door of her cell. She snuggled down under the thick woven wool blanket and moaned softly, trying to grasp on to the edges of her dream. It had been a good one, soft brown eyes and rough hands and a soft mouth, and...it was gone. Frustrated, she sighed and called out for the cowboy to enter, feeling a strange fluttering in her stomach as she saw the cowboy’s smiling face. He reached down next to the door, then backed into the room carrying a tray in each hand. She noted with a smile that his left hand was no longer wrapped and he seemed to have no problem using it to carry the trays into the room.

“Tried my hand at biscuits and gravy today. Ain’t too bad, I don’t think.” He said with a shrug, setting one of the trays at the end of her bed. “Mind if I join you?” He asked.

“No, I do not mind.” Angela said, glancing at him quizzically. He sat on the concrete floor with his back against the wall and his legs splayed out in front of him. He set the other tray on his lap, and immediately tucked in. Angela sat up on the cot and pulled the tray over to her, silently starting to eat. A few moments passed, the sound of silverware hitting and scraping against the tin plates echoing throughout the cell. Angela found that she could not stop herself from glancing up and over at the cowboy. He appeared to pay her no mind as he continued to eat his breakfast, but when, after a few minutes, he did glance up, Angela felt herself flush and looked back down towards her breakfast. (Was it her imagination, or did his cheeks darken too?). Angela noticed that her heart was beating faster than normal, but it had been doing that intermittently since her capture, so she chose to write it off as nerves.

“You like shooting?” McCree asked suddenly, his rough low voice causing Angela to jump a bit, sending a shot of adrenaline into her stomach and causing her heart rate to speed up a bit more, much to her chagrin.

“I beg your pardon?” she said, feeling a bit flustered.

“Shooting. Pistols, rifles, shotguns? Ain’t much else to do around here so we all get to be pretty good shots.” 

“I have never fired a weapon, no.” she said

“Well, how about that? Got a newbie here! That just means you don’t have anything to unlearn. I could teach you later today if you’d like? Ain’t much else to do around here if I’m being perfectly honest. I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just figured,” McCree’s excitement and almost puppy dog expression made Angela chuckle a little.

“I suppose it would not be a bad thing to learn how to do.” she said, interrupting him.

“Well, now, that’s just great! Here, let’s go topside before it gets too hot.” 

He held his hand out for her empty tray, which she handed to him. He then motioned for her to follow him and, after stopping by the kitchen to drop the dishes off and pick up some empty cans and bottles, they made their way upstairs. McCree immediately strode off towards a plank suspended between two buckets at the base of the cliff wall. He set several empty bottles and cans on it, then walked back to where Angela was standing, about fifty feet away. He unholstered his revolver from his side and flipped it around, holding it out towards Angela grip first. She tentatively reached out her hand and took the pistol from him. It was heavier than she had expected, and felt awkward in her hand.

“You do realize you just handed your prisoner a weapon, yes?” She said, looking up at him in amusement.

“If you’re concerned about my sanity, ma’am, it ain’t loaded. I’m just showing you how to hold it and how to stand to start.” He laughed, motioning for her to turn towards the cliff wall.

“And from where did you learn to shoot?” she said as she eyed the weapon in her hand with uncertainty.

“Wasn’t from nobody certified if that’s what you’re asking.” he laughed, “My pa taught me.”

“And where did he learn?”

“From his pa, I reckon.”

“Wonderful.” She replied with an edge of sarcasm

“Hey, now! There ain’t ever been a McCree who weren’t a dead eye shot, so you’re learning from a long line of people who know what they’re doing holding a gun.” he laughed

“I can not imagine that it is too difficult. You point the gun at the target, pull the trigger, and then boom, ja?” She said teasingly. McCree swept his hat off of his head and held it against his heart with an exaggerated pained expression.

“Madam you wound me. There’s nothing I can teach you, I’m afraid you’re a lost cause.” He chuckled and placed his hat back on his head.

“Now, keep your finger off of that trigger unless you’re meaning to shoot whatever you’re pointing at, and never point a gun, even if it’s not loaded, at anything you’re not willing to kill, you got it?” Angela nodded, removing her finger from the trigger.

“Now,” McCree said moving up behind her, “put your legs about shoulder width apart, both hands on the gun, look down the sights at that bottle there.” He reached past her without moving from behind her, adjusting her arms, bending her elbows slightly. At the gentle feeling of his callused skin on her arms, Angela could feel her heart rate starting to increase a bit as a pleasant shiver made its way down her spine.

“Now, you’re looking at that bottle, yeah?” He said in a low whisper right next to her ear, his hot breath tickling her. She swore she could feel heat radiating off of him, engulfing her from behind. It took her a few moments to register that he had asked her a question, and found that she had trouble verbalizing even a simple reply.

“Yes.” She eventually whispered. Her mouth went completely dry and her breath hitched in in her throat. She could feel her hands start to shake slightly and he had to resist the urge to lean towards him, just a little bit, to see how it would feel to have the warmth of his chest directly press into her back.

“Alright then, finger on the trigger and don’t yank it back hard, just squeeze it gently.” 

Angela followed his instructions, trying to block out the feelings of the warmth of his body and the gentleness of his touch on her arms and focus on her target. A bang and a crash sounded, echoing in the near silence of the desert as the green bottle exploded into shards. Angela stood in stunned silence for a moment as McCree grabbed the pistol out of her hands without resistance. Without hesitation and while hardly looking, the cowboy shot the last five cans and bottles off of the plank in quick succession.

“Well, how about that. Turns out it was loaded after all!” he laughed, blowing a bit of smoke off of the end before flourishing his pistol and holstering the now empty weapon. Angela noted his voice was shaking slightly. “Good shot for your first one ever, too, doc. I don’t know if I hit my first target, even with the McCree sharpshooter genes.”

“You said the gun was not loaded.” She said, finding that her voice shaking ever so slightly as well.

“Well, couldn’t have you getting any ideas about shooting me after handing you the revolver. I do have some sense of self preservation, even if it doesn’t seem like it.” he said with a laugh, still standing behind her and slightly to the left. Angela found that she could not decide whether she wanted to move towards him or away from him, so she unconsciously decided to stand almost perfectly still. She glanced over her left shoulder and up to make eye contact with him.

“When I became a medical student, I did take an oath to do no harm. I am fairly certain that that includes shooting someone.”

“Didn’t think that oath applied to dealing with the bad guys, doc. ‘Specially not ones that were keeping you prisoner.” He replied, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand and glancing away from her.

“Then you think you are one of the ‘bad guys’?” she asked with a note of surprise

“I’ve been thinking about what you told me. About what happened that day on the train. Last I checked the good guys aren’t the ones kidnapping and murdering, they’re the ones stopping all of that. Far as I can see? That makes us the bad ones. Sure we’ve stolen some stuff in the past, but it ain’t like the people we stole from didn’t have it to spare. And I’ve killed some people, ain’t gonna lie and say I haven’t, but not innocent bystanders, that just ain’t right.”

“If you think that what your gang is doing is wrong, then why are you still here? Why keep me prisoner? It seems that you do not agree with what they are doing, so why do you stay?” Angela said, turning around to look McCree fully in the face. 

She felt her mind empty of organized thought as she noticed how close they were standing. She had to tilt her head back to make eye contact with him at this close distance, and when her bright blue eyes looked into his soft brown ones, she felt her heart leapt into her throat, pounding so loudly she was sure the cowboy standing so close to her would be able to notice.

“To be perfectly honest, doc, what choice do I have?” he said, maintaining eye contact with her, his voice getting a bit louder and more distressed, as she felt warmth continue to grow, pooling in her stomach, “Ain’t like I can run into town and get a normal job, what with my face on every holo net’s wanted section between here and El Paso. Besides, these people, well, they’re my family, even though I feel like I hardly recognize what they’ve become. I ain’t one to turn my back on people, and they’d never forgive me if I turned traitor.” he glanced down, breaking their eye contact, and took a small step backwards. 

Angela shivered slightly in spite of the dry heat of the desert as a feeling of disappointment overwhelmed her. 

 

The pair stood in silence for a few minutes, as Angela struggled to think of something to say. There had to be something she could say, something she could do to convince this man to let her run away. Or run away with her. To her surprise, she did not think that he was a bad person, as he seemed to believe. She could understand his unwillingness to betray his group, in other circumstances she may have admired him for it. Looking over at him once again, she could see that he was struggling with his thoughts the same way she was, as he kept taking a small breath in and making like he wanted to speak before exhaling and looking away.

“I am getting a bit warm.” Angela said, breaking their stalemate, relieving the heaviness of the silence in the air, “Perhaps we can go back underground for a while?”

“Sure, yeah. Just, you go on ahead. I need a minute or two to gather my thoughts. Reckon I’ve been avoiding doing some thinking about some of these things for far too long.” Angela nodded and walked back towards the bunker, leaving the cowboy standing alone under the afternoon sun.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading!

McCree found Angela in the rec room later that afternoon. She was curled up on the old sectional sofa, intently staring at a movie on the half-cracked flat screen. He felt a surge of affection for the slight blonde girl as he noted how she almost appeared to be studying the movie. Her brow was furrowed slightly, with her eyes narrowed just a bit and her head cocked a bit to the left. He cleared his throat a bit to announce his presence, and Angela jumped a bit, then glanced over her shoulder to look at him, smiling slightly as he walked into the room, then immediately turned and fixed her attention back onto the screen. He felt his stomach flip flop for a moment as his face heated up.

“What’s got you looking so serious? What movie is this?” He asked, walking over behind the sofa, leaning his elbows on the back.

“Oh, this? I’ve hardly been paying attention to it honestly. Some sort of romance movie.” she said, not looking up at him.

“Mind if I join you?” 

“Not at all, though I think the movie may be almost over.” she replied without looking back over at him.

He sat down on the opposite end of the sofa from her. He tried to watch the movie, but he kept finding himself looking over at the woman on the other end of the sofa. He admired her. Not once through the entire time he had known her had he seen her get too flustered. Hell, if he’d been nabbed by someone, he knew he would have been cussing and fighting and probably would have gotten a few swift kicks in the ribs for his trouble, but she seemed to analyze everything that was happening. More of a look before you leap personality than him for sure. The doc, Angela, had surprised him. She was kind to him. He did nothing to deserve it, hell he was pretty sure keeping her prisoner was pretty high up on the list of reasons why someone doesn’t deserve kindness, but she had listened to him, eaten with him, and hell if he didn’t know any better he would have thought she was flirting with him.

“You a big fan of movies?” He asked, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest, continuing to spend more time paying attention to her than the movie.

“Not particularly. This is the first one I have watched in years. I was always too busy with my research and studies to take the time to watch them.” she shrugged, finally taking her attention away from the screen as she glanced over towards him with a small smile before turning her attention back to the movie. 

“So, what is it you like to do? When you’re not doing medical stuff that is.” he asked, stretching his arms above his head as his shoulders popped loudly.

“I can hardly remember. One does not have much time for hobbies in medical school or residency.”

“I suppose that’s fair. What did you like to do before you did the medical thing, then?”

“I enjoyed hiking. Singing. Going to the theater with my,” she paused, “with my parents and sister. That was years ago, though. Honestly if feels like it has been decades.”

“Before you were working on getting your doctorate?”

“Doctorates, actually. MD and PhD. Not much time for anything else when you are doing both at once.” He thought he picked up a hint of regret in her voice at this, but it was hard to say for certain.

“Shoot, I suppose not. Didn’t even know you could do something like that.”

“Usually you can’t. There were special exceptions made for me.” she said with a confident smirk.

“Huh. How about that. This mean I have to call you ‘doc doc’, seeing as how you’re a doctor twice over?”

“That’s really not necessary.” she blushed, looking down at her knees

“Whatever you say, doc doc.” She looked up at him and erupted in laughter. She softly kicked out one of her feet, hitting him in the thigh as if to reprimand him for his impertinence. He felt the warmth of affection he held for her grow. A few comfortable moments of silence passed between them, as the credits rolled on the film.

“Say, you said you like hiking, yeah? There’s a really pretty trail up the side of this mountain, not too far from here. If we pack some food for a light supper and leave now we’d probably make it for the sunset.” he said, stretching and glancing over to her

“We would have to walk back in the dark.” she replied

“The trail ain’t too bad. Pretty smooth. Besides, it’s worth it. Trust me.” he smiled, standing up and holding out his hand. She sat there for a few moments, her brow furrowed, before she looked up at him and took his hand.

“Very well, but if I trip and fall on the way down I will never forgive you for it.”

“No worries, ma’am, I won’t let that happen.”

**********

The two of them made their way upstairs, Jesse grabbing a helmet off of the wall and handing it back to her as they stepped out into the yard.

“We are taking the hoverbike?” she asked, seeming nervous

“Yep. Ain’t no other way of getting there. It’s about thirty miles from here to the trailhead, and I ain’t walking that.” She hesitated before taking the helmet from him and putting it on. He walked over to the bike and straddled it, starting the engine.

“You ever ridden one of these before?” he asked over the hum of the bike.

“No. I did most of my training in trauma surgery, and after that never really had the urge.”

“Well, I’m just getting to teach you all sorts of new things, ain’t I? Just get on behind me and hold on tight.” She walked over to the hoverbike, hesitated, and then a look of determination she sat astride the hoverbike and grabbed Jesse around his midsection. Jesse could feel her soft warmth behind him, and the feeling of her arms locked around his waist gave Jesse all sorts of butterflies. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself down and ignore the heat rising in his center.

“Are we, are we going to leave soon?” she said, her voice high pitched and more than a little shaky.

“Oh, um, right, sorry, yes.” He said, past the lump in his throat, breaking free from his distraction of having her so close to him. He revved the engine, and the pair took off across the desert.

 

They reached the trailhead far too soon for Jesse’s liking, even though he had driven slower than normal trying to drag it out, and as Angela got off of the bike, Jesse noticed that he already missed the feeling of her pressed against him. Angela removed her helmet and rested it on the handle of the hoverbike.

“Alright, then, it’s just up this way.” he said, motioning to the trail. The pair began to walk along the smooth dirt path.

***********

The trail continued upwards at a pretty steep incline, with switchbacks only occasionally thrown in to make the ascent easier. The desert trail was pretty isolated. A few jackrabbits and crows were the only other living things they saw. Jesse knew if he turned and look backwards he’d be able to point out about where the Deadlock camp was, but he figured Angela didn’t really care all that much about that. The heat was getting to be kind of bad, and Jesse found that he was breathing pretty heavily, although he noticed that the doc was not. He took out his canteen and took a swig of water before handing it to her. She took a few sips, then the pair continued to hike up the trail. Whenever they reached even the smallest obstacle, Jesse would hold out his hand to Angela to help her over. Just to be a gentleman he thought, although he did notice the jolt of warmth in his hand and down his spine whenever she rested her gentle, smooth hand in his. The trail became less steep after a few more minutes, widening out to where they could easily walk side by side.

“Where would you say is your favorite place to go hiking?” Jesse asked in between breaths, as he glanced over at Angel and saw her eyes light up.

“The mountains near Zermatt, in Switzerland. My family would go every summer for the hiking and every winter for the skiing. Have you ever been?”

“Ma’am I ain’t never left the American Southwest, much less been to Switzerland.”

“Well, if you ever get the chance, you should go. And one day when you are there, wake up early. In the early morning, when it is barely light and you can see the mountains rising above the mist, Gott im himmel, there is nothing more beautiful.” Her eyes were shining and Jesse found that he could not look away.

“If I do, can I count on you to be my guide?”

“Of course! After all, I can not have you getting lost in the mountains of Switzerland because of me. I would feel terrible.”

“Well, I appreciate that, doc.” he laughed, “Your family still go there?”

“No. They have not gone for years.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am.” The two reached the top of the trail and looked out to the west over the desert. The sun was beginning to sink low in the sky, painting everything in shades of red and gold. A flock of crows took flight from nearby, their cries and the whisper of the wind being the only things breaking the quiet desolation of the desert. Jesse walked over to a weathered bench and sat down, kicking his legs out in front of him, and pulled out the bread and cheese he had packed for their supper. Angela sat on the other end of the bench, crossing her legs at the ankles and tucking them under the bench. He handed her some of the food, which she took, sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, eating as the sunset’s colors got deeper and more vibrant.

“Shoot, I’ve lived here all my life and I still can’t believe there’s something this pretty to look at right here. Easy to see why my pa swore he’d never move anywhere else, no matter how bad things got.” Jesse said with a sigh as he finished his food.

“Does your family still live in the area?”

“My family’s dead.”

“Oh. I am sorry to hear that.” Angela said, glancing down at her hands. If Jesse noticed her hands were shaking slightly, he did not comment on it.

“It’s alright. You couldn’t know. Besides, it’s been a while. Something like seven years, give or take.” The two sat in silence for a few moments. Jesse looked over at Angela, and saw that she looked focused. Recognizing that she was deciding whether or not to say something, he kept quiet and waited for her.

“That is the reason why I haven’t gone to Zermatt. My family is dead, too. They were in London when the Omnic Crisis began two years ago.”

“I’m sorry.” he said, echoing what she had said earlier, and realizing that there was nothing he could say to make her feel better. Hell, he’d reckon that he had heard all of the pithy sayings over the years, so he knew how empty they were in the face of being an orphan. He hesitated for a second, before he reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes started leaking tears, and Jesse could feel his welling up and spilling over as well. He grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her. She used it to dab her eyes.

“I am sorry for crying. You would think after almost two years, saying it and thinking it would get easier, but it has not yet.”

“I know what you mean, ma’am.” Jesse said, his voice breaking, “It’s been seven for me, and it still hurts like it happened yesterday.” Angela looked up at him with a look that he could not place. Then, much to his surprise, she scooted over closer to him and curled up against his side. He took his arm and wrapped it around her, drawing her close, and rubbed his thumb against her shoulder in comforting circles.

“What happened, I mean, after your parents, what did you do?” Jesse asked

“The Lindholms, some family friends from Sweden, essentially took me in. Of course by that time I was in my residency so I didn’t see them very often, but it was nice to know they would help if I needed them. It gave me someone to call on Saturdays when I would usually call my parents or my sister. What about you?”

“Got into trouble, mostly. Foster system passed me around a bunch. Found myself getting meaner, and I didn’t like that. Ran away as soon as I could with Ashe and a couple of others to form the Deadlock Gang.”

“And they became your family.”

“Yes, ma’am, they did. Truthfully, they’re the only people on this planet who’d rather see me alive than dead.”

“I am sorry that you think that, Jesse.” She said quietly as the sun slipped completely over the horizon, a small flush of pink in the blue and purple sky all that remained of the brilliant sunset.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your comments and kudos and even for just reading the story! I've really enjoyed writing it so far. Don't worry, we aren't even close to the end yet!

As they made their down the road on the hoverbike, Jesse looked out towards the Deadlock camp, probably only a quarter mile away at this point, and saw several lights descend towards it. His heart dropped and his breath caught in his throat as he realized what was going on. The gang was back. Trying not to betray his nervousness, he continued to drive as his fear increased. The past few days had been so nice, they had fallen into a routine and he realized that he had somehow held onto hope that it would never end. He’d almost forgotten that, when the gang got back, things were going to change. He would go back to being a higher-up in the gang, one of the lackeys would take over guarding Angela, and anywhere between a few hours and a few days from now, she’d go over to whoever hired them and he would never see her again. And she would remain a prisoner. He thought about driving away, turning around and going back to the mountain where everything was perfect and bathed in the golden orange light of sunset, but he knew that it was too late. The gang had seen him before he had seen them, and his choice had been made for him. He pulled up to the camp and turned the engine off and, as he stood up and looked over at Angela, he could see the thinly veiled fear in her eyes. He felt absolutely sick. He looked up to see Ashe, Bob hot on her heels, marching towards them with fire in her step and determination in her eyes.

“Well, Ashe, have to say I didn’t expect to see you all back so soon. Miss me too much?” McCree said with a smirk and a wink, knowing a bit of charm and swagger could hide any emotion he was feeling.

“Shut up, McCree, where’s the girl? We got here and her cell was empty and if you let her escape I’m gonna beat your sorry ass within an inch of your life you hear me?” Ashe called out as she all but ran closer

“Calm down, Ashe, just took her on a little sightseeing trip.” he said with an insincere laugh, taking a puff from his cigar. Ashe marched up to him, looked behind him at Angela, then put a finger on McCree’s chest, standing up on her toes to look him directly in the face.

“You took a prisoner sightseeing?” she said through gritted teeth, jabbing her finger into his breastbone with every word.

“Figured it couldn’t hurt, ain’t like she’s dangerous. Besides, like I said, I wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon. She’s still here, safe and sound, so no harm no foul right?” he smirked, throwing the end of his cigar onto the ground and stomping on it with his boot.

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood, Jesse McCree. The mission went a lot better than we were expecting. Thanks to Joe here, in fact, it went off without a hitch. Now, put the girl back in her cell and come to my office. We'll talk about the trouble you're in later, but there's someone I want you to meet there.” Ashe abruptly turned and stomped off towards the bunker. Bob hesitated for a second, clapped Jesse on the shoulder, then took off after her. Jesse turned back towards Angela. She was looking at up at him, and his stomach dropped as he saw the hurt and betrayal and fear in her expression.

“If you’ll just, uh, follow me ma’am.” he said, reaching out his hand towards her. Her expression changed, her fear masked by anger and, without taking his hand, she marched past him towards the bunker. McCree sheepishly followed her to her cell.

***********************

Angela sat in the quiet of her cell, listening to the footsteps and shouts of the gang members outside as they unloaded their latest haul from their hover ships. She could feel the anger and hurt welling up inside of her, but she did not feel like crying. She had trusted in that outlaw, believed him to be different than the rest, convinced herself that he would never go through with the group’s plan to sell her to the highest bidder. Imagined that they had had a connection. What a naive, foolish, stupid child she had been. She formed her right hand into a fist and hit it rhythmically against the concrete wall of her cell. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought as the soft part of her fist connected with the wall. There had to be a way out of this. If the cowboy wouldn’t help her, she would have to help herself. Think, Angela, think, look at your resources. The room was significantly less bare than it had been when she had first arrived. She had a thick, woven wool blanket, a few changes of clothes, and two books sitting by the bed (the “library” in the rec room left much to be desired, but reading the trashy romance novels was better than doing nothing at all). There was nothing there that she could use to threaten someone with, and she needed some cover to make it through camp safely. She huffed in frustration as her panic continued to grow. She jumped slightly as the key turned in the lock and she begged whoever was listening that Jesse would be on the other end. She immediately recognized Jesse's outline in the dim light of her cell, and breathed breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the cell, although the relief was quickly replaced by anger and hurt.

“Doc, we need to talk.” he said, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

“I do not know what it is that we need to talk about.” she said, scooting over and motioning for him to sit on the bed beside her. He sat down next to her, and she noticed his shoulders seemed tense and that he was fidgeting.

“We just met with the man who paid us to kidnap you.” he said quickly, “He’s from Talon.”

“Talon? The terrorist organization? What on earth do they want with me?”

“Apparently whatever research you’re going to be doing for Overwatch, Talon wants it bad. So much that they paid through the nose for us to get you to hand over to them so they could get it.”

“If those terrorists think for one moment that I would dream of giving them any of my research...” Angela exclaimed, her volume increasing with every word

“Shh, shh. I ain't supposed to be telling you any of this, and I'm in enough trouble as it is." He paused for a moment and listened. When no more sounds broke the silence, he continued, "After hearing some about how these guys work, they’d either get something to hold over you to make you, or they’d decide that if they can’t have your research, no one can.”

The pair sat in strained silence for a few moments. Angela took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She knew how important her work was, how many people she could help. Unfortunately, she also knew what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. One of the earliest things she learned in medical school was that healing and harming are two sides of the same coin, and the same nanosurgery she was doing to help save people's lives could so easily be used to help kill or torture them.

“Then I suppose,” Angela said slowly, determination steeling her voice, “that this is where it ends. Talon will either keep me locked up forever or they will kill me. Either way, they will not lay one finger on my research. I would rather die than help them.”

“You could just play along for a bit? I’m sure Overwatch will be looking for you, hell I’ll tell them what happened to you myself. They’ll get you out, get you safe.”

“And risk Talon using whatever research I would give them to build weapons? Risk Overwatch never finding me and running out of time? No. I swore when I began medicine that I would never knowingly cause harm to another through my actions, and I intend to stand by that, no matter the cost.”

“I wish there was something…”

“What, something you could do?” she interrupted him brusquely, “there is, of course, something you can do. There is and has always been something that you could do. But we have already discussed this and you made your decision. You have chosen who you want to be.”

“There’s nothing I can do, doc! If I let you out of here, if you escaped on my watch, I’d be a wanted man, on the run from the law and from the Deadlock Gang, never a moment of peace, always watching my back and waiting for the shoe to fall and for me to end up in prison or end up dead. That ain’t the kind of life I’m looking to live.”

“So you have chosen instead to hand me over to Talon and leave me to my fate. I am not angry with you Jesse, I understand how you feel. But I do recognize that you have a choice, and I simply wish you had chosen differently.” she said with a shrug. 

He did not respond to her after this. Angela glanced up and saw him looking down at the ground, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. She reached out a hand, hesitated for a minute, then laid it on his shoulder, feeling his shoulders shake slightly beneath her touch.

“I believe that you are a good man, Jesse.” She said softly, “I hope that you truly believe that what you are doing is right.” She paused for a second, cocking her head to the right as she considered a thought, “Have you thought about joining Overwatch?”

“Ha. Last I checked it’s not like they’re signing up just anyone. Besides, I think you’re ignoring the part where I am a wanted criminal. Thieves and kidnappers ain’t got no place there, last I checked. They’re the good guys, I’m, well, I’m not.”

“Overwatch has been trying to recruit me since I was in medical school. I insisted on finishing my residency in Switzerland and they obliged. I could make this another clause to my joining. If they want me, they have to take you. Besides, you are a good shot. They would see your worth.”

“I can't leave the gang, doc. They're the only family I've got.”

“Then I suppose you have made your choice, Jesse.” as she said his name, he glanced over at her, making eye contact. He reached his left hand up, hesitating slightly, before covering her hand on his shoulder with his own. Angela glanced down.

“You really think Overwatch would listen to you before throwing me in prison?” the cowboy said, his voice wavering with uncertainty.

“If not, then I suppose I would be the one smuggling you out in the middle of the night. I would not abandon you, Jesse.” She looked into his eyes, almost black in the low light of the cell, once more, and she felt her heart leap and pound in her chest. Her eyes flicked down from his eyes to his mouth, and without conscious thought she flicked her tongue out, moistening her lips. McCree’s eyes darkened slightly as he glanced down to her mouth before making eye contact again, and she couldn’t help but draw her breath in slightly. She felt his grip on her hand grow more insistent. Angela found herself leaning closer to him, or him leaning closer to her, she couldn’t say. Regardless, her heart rate increased with every inch they drew together. Hurry up and kiss me. She thought, surprising herself. Before that could happen, a crash and a curse from outside of the cell caused both of them to jump, breaking their eye contact and looking towards the door. Angela felt her heart continue to pound as she took her hand off of Jesse’s shoulder and he leaned away from her.

“I, uh, I should probably get going.” McCree said, looking at the ground, “We’re going over the latest mission tonight with the whole team, and I’ve got to be there. God knows I’m already far enough on Ashe’s bad side.” He chuckled without humor. Without looking back over towards her, he stood and walked over to the door of the cell. He paused there, his left hand on the door’s handle. Angela held her breath as a few moments passed. He stood unmoving next to the door and took a few slow breaths, his right hand twitching by his side. He turned back to look at her, and Angela felt her heart leap. He turned to look at the door once again and sighed.

“Don’t sleep too deep.” he said quietly, without looking at her, “I’ll be back once everyone has gone to bed. May be kinda late. Wear something dark and be ready to leave when I get here.” Angela nodded once, though she knew the cowboy was not looking at her. Jesse tipped his hat and said nothing more as he left the room, closing the door behind him.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very, very short chapter today. Figured I'd give anyone who was following this story a little something to read over Christmas. Hope you all have an absolutely fantastic day!

Jesse’s heart was pounding as he opened the door to Angela’s cell, quickly ducking in and closing the door behind him.

“Ready to go, doc?” he said quietly, glancing over to her sitting on the cot. She was wearing a black hoodie and black leggings, and he figured that as long as she kept the hood up her angelic blonde hair shining in the moonlight wouldn’t be too terribly noticeable.

“Yes.” she whispered

“Alright then, stick close to me. Lot of whiskey was passed around tonight to celebrate the last mission, so hopefully no one even notices us leave.”

He opened the door to the cell and glanced up and down the hall. No one in sight, perfect. He motioned for Angela to follow, and the pair walked quickly towards the stairs leading topside. He winced at every sound no matter how quiet. Hell, his breaths and footsteps were echoing they were so loud. Hell, he wouldn’t be surprised if the gang could even hear his heart about to beat out of his chest. The stairs finally came into view before he heard a cough and footsteps coming around the corner. Panicked, he looked around for cover. He pulled Angela into a small broom closet, closing the door just as he heard the footsteps rounding the corner into their hallway. The closet was too small for two people, and they were pressed together front to front. His breath caught in his throat as he realized just how close they were, pressed together, their hearts beating as one, and Angela’s arms snaked around his waist, pressing the two of them even closer together. He could feel her warmth radiating off of her, her hot breath tickling his throat, and smell his shampoo in her hair. His body started to respond to her closeness, and he was overwhelmed with the urge to take her into his arms and kiss her senseless like he had wanted to so badly just a few hours earlier. This ain’t the time nor the place, Jesse. He thought, trying to pay attention to the footsteps instead of the feeling of Angela’s soft form pressed up against him. The guard’s footsteps paused in front of the door, and Jesse held his breath, his heart feeling like it was about to beat out of his chest. A moment passed, then two. He didn’t dare to breathe until the footsteps started again, and he heard the footsteps fade away down the hall. Even though the danger had passed, Jesse didn’t want to move. Angela’s arms tightened around his waist, and he felt her breath travel from his throat up to his chin as she tilted her head to look up at him.

“Alright then, almost there, yeah?” he said, his voice sticking in his throat as he broke the silence. He felt Angela sigh and nod a she disentangled herself from him. He quietly opened the door back into the hallway.

The pair quickly made their way to the staircase and opened the door to the desert, stepping out into the cool night air. The full moon bathed the ships in the yard in soft white light, making it easy for the two of them to find their way over to the hoverbike parked near the edge of the yard. They skirted around the light from a bonfire in the middle of the compound, moving slowly to avoid detection by the gang members sitting around it. Only a few more yards. The voices from the campfire grew louder, and McCree pulled Angela into the shadows. A few moments passed before the night grew quiet once again and they continued on. McCree let out a sigh of relief as they reached the bike. He swung his leg over it and he felt Angela get on behind him without hesitation.

“Hang on tight.” He whispered, as the hoverbike whirred to life.

“Hey! Hey where do you think you’re going?” A voice called from the yard as the bike whirred to life. Jesse felt Angela's hands wrap around his waist for the second time that evening and the feeling steeled his resolve.  Without second thought, he revved the engine, stepped on the accelerator, and sped the two of them off into the inky darkness of the desert night.

********

The cold night air whipped past them as they sped north across the open desert. Angela glanced over her shoulder and, seeing no bikes or ships in pursuit, allowed herself to take a large, deep sigh of relief. She was free. She had somehow managed to convince this gang member to let her go, and was rejoicing that he had decided to go with her.  She was going home. The cold night air of the open desert whipped across her face and through her hair as she rejoiced, tightening her arms around Jesse’s waist in her exuberance. She was no longer a prisoner; she was on her way home, _and Jesse was coming with her_. Angela laughed in relief and joy, tilted her head back, and spread her arms out to each side like a bird about to take flight, reveling in the feeling of the air swirling past her fingertips.

The soft vibrations of the hoverbike adjusting its height distance from the rocks beneath it smoothed out into nothing as they transitioned from driving across gravel to driving on a paved highway. As they turned onto the road, Angela wrapped her hands around Jesse’s slender waist again, and tightened her arms in excitement and gratitude, resting her cheek against his upper back with a sigh. The sky slowly turned purple and pink and yellow as the two sped off into the sunrise.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, everyone! Holy cow, I can't believe we're at chapter ten already! Hope you all are enjoying the story! Also I'm considering adding some stuff in later chapters that will increase the rating from a T to an M. If you have any opinions on this, feel free to leave a comment. Thank you!

Angela was dirty, grimy, exhausted, a bit sunburned, and her hair was tangled in all sorts of knots from being whipped by the wind, and as she and Jesse pulled up to the main gates of the Overwatch Watchpoint she almost felt like crying from happiness and relief, but a sharp spike of worry kept her from doing so. The hoverbike came to a stop in a cloud of red dust in front of the gates to the compound. Angela’s feelings of excitement and fear grew as she stared up at the shimmering blue of the force field covering the fifteen foot tall steel bar doors emblazoned with the Overwatch logo. She hoped the organization she was choosing to join would hear her out before immediately deciding to arrest the wanted criminal she was currently clinging to.

“Please state your name.” a computerized female voice said from a box in front of the gates.

“Doctor Angela Ziegler. I believe I am expected.” Angela replied, her voice dry from disuse and the desert air.

“Voice recognition activated. Welcome to Overwatch, Doctor Ziegler. I am Athena. We have been expecting you.” The voice said as a shimmery blue force field dissipated and the iron doors swung open, allowing Jesse and Angela to drive into the yard. As soon as they did, several armed guards rushed out from a building near the gate, surrounding the hoverbike.

“We have you surrounded! Hands where we can see them!” One of the guards yelled. Jesse released the handles of the hoverbike, Angela kept her arms where they were. The guard then turned to a commlink pressed into his lapel, “Commander, we have visuals on Doctor Ziegler and her captor. Awaiting orders.” Angela’s heart dropped as she heard the guard’s words, and silently pleaded that the orders were not to shoot Jesse on sight. A few seconds passed like a few minutes as Angela held her breath waiting for the commander to respond.

“Wait right there, we’ll be down in a second.” A voice replied from the commlink and Angela breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey now, friends, this ain’t no way to welcome the good doctor to your organization, is it?” McCree smirked, his hands raised just above his shoulders. Angela squeezed Jesse’s midsection tighter as a reprimand as she looked warily at all of the guards. 

“Cut the chatter, cowboy, unless you’re asking for blaster fire.” the lead guard said, aiming his gun directly at him. McCree shrugged but didn’t say anything more. In spite of his devil may care attitude, she could feel Jesse’s heart rate increasing along with her own, and could see his right hand start to twitch. The guards, there were four of them, Angela saw, didn’t falter, standing at the ready with their weapons pointed directly at Jesse.

“You can come over here with us, if you’d like miss.” One of the guards piped up, motioning for Angela to walk over to her.

“Thank you, but no. I am quite comfortable where I am.” Angela said curtly with her arms remaining firmly fixed around Jesse’s stomach. She realized that the guard was simply trying to improve her situation, but Angela knew that the second she let go of Jesse the guards would be on him in a heartbeat. He had protected her, now it was her turn to protect him. A few silent moments passed and Angela felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest. From across the compound a blonde man dressed in Overwatch blue marched towards them.

“Angela Ziegler? Commander Jack Morrison.” the blonde said, eyeing the pair on the bike. He stuck out his hand, but Angela made no motion to move closer to accept, wary about letting go of McCree even for a second. Morrison moved his hand back to his side and continued, “I’d like to be the first to welcome you to Overwatch. Now if you wouldn’t following me to my office. Guards? Arrest him.” Morrison said, pointing at McCree.

“No.” Angela said, her chin tilting up as she looked over at Commander Morrison.

“Excuse me?”

“I said no. I will not allow this man, who has just rescued me from the clutches of the Deadlock Gang to be punished for his good deed.”

“Athena did a facial analysis on him and pushed his record through. I don't know what he's told you, but this man’s got a track record a mile long stretching back to when he was just a kid in high school. He’s a wanted criminal. The feds have been after him and his gang for months in connection to a string of robberies across the southwest.”

“Yes, I am aware. And now you must realize that his gang is now going to be going after him for rescuing me.”

“One good act does not absolve a lifetime of crime, Doctor Ziegler, you know this.” Morrison said with a sigh. Angela could feel Jesse tense up next to her and she squeezed him slightly, and the feeling of dread and worry that she had experienced since pulling up to the gates only continued to grow.

“Then I am afraid that I will have to decline your generous offer for me to join the Overwatch team. Thank you for your time and consideration. We will be leaving now.” Angela said, looking away from the commander as though preparing to leave. Jesse's hands stayed above his shoulders.

“What?” Morrison sputtered.

“Did you think you and your organization were the only people offering for me to join their team to conduct research? I assure you, I have had many offers. Therefore, I am adding a condition to my acceptance. I will not join this team unless this man receives a pardon for his crimes.”

“I’m afraid that that is impossible, Doctor Ziegler. The law clearly states that this man is to be arrested and tried. Are you willing to submit to this?”

“No way in hell, sir.” McCree said darkly from in front of her.

“Then we have nothing to discuss. We will call the authorities and he will be transferred to prison. We’ll be sorry to see you go, Doctor Ziegler.”

“Ha! I ain’t planning on sticking around until then.” McCree laughed, though Angela noted his voice was higher pitched than normal and she could feel him fidgeting next to her.

“We’re not going to let you walk out of here, kid.” Morrison said as the guards once again raised their guns, aiming them directly towards the hoverbike.

“Jack, is this really necessary.” A woman said as she walked closer to the group. Angela noted that this woman was dressed similarly to Commander Morrison, with an Overwatch-blue jacket and beret.

“Captain Amari, this man is a wanted criminal.”

“This boy just risked his life to rescue our newest recruit from his own organization. He accomplished a mission that you were telling me we did not have the resources to complete, and this is how we are to thank him? I think not.” The woman, Captain Amari, said, walking up to Morrison and standing toe to toe with him.

“The law states that...”

“Is that not one of the reasons we formed Overwatch? To do what we see as right?” Captain Amari said in a voice that was much calmer and quieter than the commander’s. Angela noted that Morrison seemed frustrated, but that he was listening to the woman intently.

“Her condition for joining is that he receive a pardon. We can't do that unless he was a part of our organization, and you know it wouldn’t look good for our reputation if the world knew we were hiring thugs and criminals.” Morrison responded

“Well. what about Reyes’ division?” Ana replied. Angela noticed Morrison stilled with this, looking thoughtful. He shook his head.

“Reyes is out on a mission, and if you think we are going to let the kid have the run of the place until he gets back...”

“Don’t mean to be a bother,” Jesse said, cutting in on the conversation, “but if you just gave me a way of getting in touch with y’all, you could just send me a message. Have my word I'll come back.”

“And we’re supposed to just believe that you’re not going to run back to the Deadlock Gang and give them a scouting report on our base?” Morrison said, turning to the pair on the hoverbike once again.

“With all due respect, sir, if my gang ever finds me I’ll be lucky to leave the encounter alive. Boss always said there’s only one way you leave the gang.” McCree said with a shrug. A few moments of silence passed. Angela noticed Morrison and Amari looking at each other, seemingly having a silent conversation. Morrison sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine. Here, kid,” Morrison said, tossing a small black device that Angela recognized as a commlink to Jesse who caught it out of the air easily, “keep it tuned to that channel. We’ll get in touch with you in a week or so, after which you’ll report back here as soon as possible, you understand?”

“Sure.” Jesse said, pocketing the device

“Now that that’s all settled, Dr. Ziegler, if you’ll follow me. The guards will see the boy out of the compound.” Morrison said with a nod to the guards. Angela swung her leg off of the hoverbike and stood next to Jesse.

“See you in a week, Doctor.” Jesse said with a wink, though Angela could read the uncertainty in his voice.

“You had better,” She said with a smile, before her face fell again, "please be careful. Come back." she said before wrapping her arms around him in a hug. He hesitated for a moment before responding in kind. Even with the awkward angle, being in his arms just felt right.

"Knowing you're going to be waiting here for me? Shoot I'd be back her even without the pardon." he whispered in her ear, making her laugh slightly even as his words sent a shot of heat through her stomach and lower back. She didn’t want to let go, but she was aware that they were not alone and desperately did not want Commander Morrison to rethink his offer. She sighed one more time before releasing her arms and taking a step back, Jesse smirked and tipped his hat at her, before starting up the hoverbike and riding out of the gates to the compound, leaving Angela in a cloud of wind and dust.


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to get this updated! The holidays and interviews really threw me for a loop, and I struggled with how to bridge together this part of the story. Let me know what y'all think, and thanks for reading!

Reyes returned three days later.

“So, I hear that you’ve got a new recruit for my squad, is that right, Morrison?” Reyes said with a laugh, leaning back in his chair and kicking his boots up onto Morrison’s desk.

“I see Dr. Ziegler has talked to you already.” Morrison said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with a sigh as he looked up from the datapad sitting in front of him.

“Damned near jumped me as soon as I stepped off of the hovercraft.” Reyes laughed, “Girl’s a spitfire. Way she rattled off the benefits of having a kid like him on the team, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been practicing her pitch. At any rate, she says the kid is a good shot and is willing to follow orders, so he’s already a few steps ahead of some of my other recruits, that’s for sure.”

“Listen, Gabriel.” Morrison said, cutting him off and leaning forward at his desk, “I don’t think this boy is someone we should be accepting into this organization, Blackwatch or no. I was hoping she would forget about it, or not get the chance to tell you, and that would be the end of it.”

“You were going to go back on your promise? That’s cold even for you.” Reyes said, swinging his legs off of the desk and leaning forward in his chair. Morrison looked back down at the datapad in front of him.

“Everything I do is for the good of this organization, you know that. The last thing Overwatch needs is a Deadlock spy mucking everything up.” he replied without making eye contact

“And what were you going to tell the girl? Sorry, your friend is dead? He betrayed you? We couldn’t find him?” Reyes sputtered in reply

“Hadn’t quite decided.”

“You’re heartless, Jack.”

“Being a commander means making the tough decisions.” Morrison hit his hand against his desk and looked up from the datapad, “I had to weigh the safety of this entire operation against the wishes of one agent. Forgive me if I chose the greater good.”

“With all due respect and as a fellow commander, allow me to say that’s bullshit. Blackwatch is full of recruits like this Jesse McCree, and personally I want to recruit him.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Well, good thing for you Blackwatch isn’t really under your jurisdiction is it?” Reyes cut him off insistently, “How do I contact the kid?”

Morrison and Reyes stared at each other across the desk for a few seconds, unmoving and unblinking. Morrison sighed, looked down, and grabbed the commlink out of the desk drawer.

“McCree are you there?” Reyes spoke into the commlink. He was quiet for a few minutes, listening to the silence at the other end,

“Jesse McCree?” Reyes said again, still silence. Morrison and Reyes jumped as a southern accented female voice came across the communicator.

“I’m sorry, the traitor you’re trying to reach is indisposed at the moment.” the woman said calmly, “Don’t you worry one bit, though, he’s in good hands and he’ll get what’s coming to him. Bye now.” A metallic crunching sound came through the communicator, then static.

“Still think the kid is a Deadlock spy?” Reyes said, looking back up at Morrison.

“Could be a trap.”

“Dammit, Jack, this kid risked his life to rescue one of our agents. Does honor mean nothing to you?”

“I have to protect the members of this team. You know I can’t officially sanction a mission to save this kid.”

“Well, then it’s a damned good thing that Blackwatch isn’t official.” Reyes said, standing up and walking towards the door.

“Gabriel,” Reyes paused as Morrison called out from behind him, “try not to get yourself killed out there.” Reyes nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.

*********************

McCree would have been certain he was dead, if it weren’t for the pain that pulsed through him with every move and every heartbeat. Ashe had always said that there’s only one way to leave the gang. She never mentioned how tough it would be to get there.

He coughed a little bit as he regained consciousness, and spat the taste of copper out of his mouth. He knew he hadn’t been there long. A day, maybe two, but at the same time he felt as though it had been forever. He hadn’t been gone from the Overwatch base long when he was found. A patrol, not necessarily looking for him.  Random chance, really. And while he had been confident he would be able to talk his way out of any situation with most of the people from the gang, the ones who had found him were Joe’s men, and there was no way they were returning without him.

He only seen Ashe once this entire time. He had made some snarky comment he couldn't remember as they dragged him towards the gang’s new base at Route 66, but she hadn’t even looked at him, her first friend, her once-family, as she ordered him to be imprisoned and "questioned".  They never asked him any questions.

Now, he knew he was waiting to die. The only reason he was still alive and wasn't shot on sight was likely because of the history he and Ashe shared, but even that couldn’t stop the inevitable. So when the door to his cell opened, he winced against the brightness of the fluorescent lights and braced himself for what was to come.

“Jesse McCree, I presume?” A rough voice that Jesse didn’t recognize said from the doorway. He blinked and adjusted his eyes to see two people he didn’t recognize, dressed in black with greasepaint across their faces.

“You the executioners?” Jesse smirked a bit, wincing as his lips cracked and bled.

“Ha! The doc was right, boy’s got spirit.” The man laughed as he walked over towards Jesse. The woman next to him pushed some buttons on the panel outside of his cell, and he felt the electromagnetic shackles snap off of his wrists.  He rested back against the cold cement wall of his cell and rubbed at his wrists.

“Can you walk, kid?” The man said, crouching down in front of him. Jesse nodded, wincing as the motion sent shooting pain through his head, neck, and back.

“Njeri, come over here and help me get the kid on his feet. Gonna have to move fast before someone realizes that we're here or he’s gone.” The man called over to the woman outside of the room, who nodded and walked over to help. The two of them hoisted Jesse onto his feet, causing him to gasp a bit in pain.

“If they are paying attention, they will likely detect the security system override soon, Commander Reyes.” the woman, Njeri, said as the trio walked out of the cell and into the stark white hallway.

“Then we’d better get a move on, unless you want to stay here. Decent hotel, from the looks of it. Looks like they treat their guests pretty well.” Commander Reyes said with an edge of sarcasm.

Even with people supporting him on either side, Jesse didn’t know how he was able to continue moving. The hallways passed by in a blur, and every step felt like walking over broken glass. Every time they had to stop to wait out a patrol, the shock of simply stopping shot pain all through him, almost sending him into unconsciousness once again.  After what felt like an eternity, they opened a door to the outside, and the cool, dry air of the desert night caressed Jesse’s face. He tilted his head back, looking up at the stars with a sigh.

“Wasn’t sure I’d ever see any of this again.” Jesse said with a small laugh, his voice thick and hoarse.

“If you don’t move your feet, it may be the last time.” Reyes grumbled from next to him, although there was no malice in his tone. They made their way through the shadows outside of the floodlights of the base.  Jesse saw a stealth hovercraft sitting at the edge of a canyon, and that was the last memory he had before exhaustion and pain overtook him and he blissfully slipped back into unconsciousness.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone reading this story! I may have gotten a bit technical with this chapter, but I couldn't help myself.

Angela felt her heart freeze inside of her chest when she first saw Jesse, lying impossibly still on the red-stained gurney. She froze. She immediately berated herself for it. She hadn’t frozen at a trauma since she was in medical school, but seeing Jesse lying impossibly still with his face swollen and bloodied almost beyond recognition shocked her. She had never cared for someone this well known to her, and for a moment it made her normally professional demeanor drop. The techs wheeled him into the brightly lit trauma bay as Angela tied her yellow gown behind her.

“Gott im Himmel what have they done to you?” Angela said under her breath as she saw what the Deadlock Gang had wrought. She steeled herself, wrested her emotions back under her control and focused on the task at hand. She would have time to process this later. For now, Jesse needed her.

“Jesse? This is Dr. Ziegler, Angela. You are in the hospital at the Overwatch base. Can you hear me at all?” Angela said loudly, as she listened to his heart and lungs with her stethoscope. His eyelids fluttered a bit at her words, and he groaned, but otherwise gave no indication that he had heard her.

“He’s been like this for the past half hour or so. Stabilized him best I could in the hovercraft, but he hasn’t come around yet.” Reyes said from across the room, knowing better than to step closer and interrupt the highly-coordinated workflow of the trauma bay.

“Do we have any labs?” Angela called out as she quickly and deftly checked for further traumatic injury.

“Sodium is a bit high, 152. Otherwise normal. Blood typed and crossed.” A tech called out, reading from a small white slip of paper. Of course his sodium was high. It was too much to ask that the Deadlock Gang give their prisoner any water as he sat in a cell in the desert losing blood.

“Good, hang a unit of normal saline, and call down to the blood bank for PRBCs and FFP. He was speaking normally before he lost consciousness, yes?” Angela said, efficiently examining his pupils. Equal and reactive. Good. She ran through the rest of the trauma check quickly and efficiently, examining him from head to toe and front to back, checking x-rays and GCS scores and FAST ultrasound exams and CTs and labs. She breathed a sigh of relief with every normal result, and winced a bit every time she came across more evidence of his mistreatment at the hands of his one-time family.

“A three and a half centimeter laceration superior to left eye, ribs seven, eight, and nine broken on the left with no evidence of pneumothorax, a right ulnar fracture, a right medial malleolus fracture, multiple contusions, and a GCS of ten, but no signs of abdominal or intracranial bleeding thank heaven.” Angela said almost to herself, looking over the notes on the holoscreen as her assistants began to give Jesse packed red blood cells, plasma, and normal saline.

“Please prepare to move him to room 103, and schedule him for q two hour neuro checks if you wouldn’t mind. Now, if you would be so kind as to fetch some size four gloves, the suture kit, and some lidocaine for me, I will begin to suture that laceration, ja?” Angela said with a smile as she walked to the sink to remove her gloves and wash her hands. She tried to ignore the shaking in her hands as the adrenaline left her system. It could have been much, much worse, she thought to herself as she prepared to suture. None of his injuries were acutely life threatening, and, in time, and with her advanced medical care, he would likely return to his former state of health. She sat down on a stool next to the bed, put on a pair of sterile gloves, and began to sterilize the cut above his eye. The mundane nature of suturing soothed her. In and out, tie and cut, motions she had practiced and practiced until she could do them in her sleep. As she clipped the last knot, she noticed Jesse’s eyes fluttering slightly, squinting against the bright white light, and felt her heart leap slightly as his eyes connected with hers.

“Good to see you are finally awake. Are you feeling alright?” Angela said with a smile, trying to disguise the slight shake in her voice.

“Doc? Boy am I glad to see you.” Jesse said with a breathy laugh, wincing and breathing more shallowly as his ribs were jostled by the action, “How bad did they get me? Jesus, I feel like I got hit by a truck.”

“You have multiple injuries, but none of them are life threatening. It may be a little while before you can get out of bed, but you should recover.” Angela said, smiling as her heart pounded in her chest.

“With you taking care of me every day? I may never want to get better.” Jesse said with a smirk.

“Well, that would be rather unfortunate, seeing as how I believe I owe you a hike in Zermatt.” she laughed, taking a damp rag and cleaning the blood and iodine off of Jesse’s forehead.

“Shoot. Forgot about that. Guess I’m gonna have to get better, then?”

“You had better. If I do not guide you through the mountains, it will be going back on my word. And I am a woman of honor, Jesse, what good is that if I go back on a promise? Besides, I believe it is the least I can do for the man who risked so much to rescue me.”

“Course, then you turned around and rescued me, so I think we’re about even on that front.” he smiled again, although Angela noticed the tension in his brow and shoulders as he did. 

She could recognize that he was hurting, though he was putting on a good front. A renegade part of her brain urged her to take his hand. She had done so for many patients over the years, but she knew, this time, if she did take his hand to offer him comfort or kindness it would be different. It would not be a physician comforting their patient, it would be Angela comforting Jesse, and the two things were very, very different. There was no true reason to reach out towards him other than how much she wanted to (and, oh how she wanted to). But she was afraid. She was afraid of how she felt and afraid of how he felt and some small part of her whispered that this intentional touch would be far more intimate than their other incidental touches, and that it would lay her heart bare before him. She wasn’t ready. She was relieved and disappointed when he leaned back against the pillow and closed his eyes. She stood, a bit more quickly than she needed to, and walked back to the sink to remove her gown and gloves.

“I believe you are due for some more pain medications. I will call the nurse, and they will take you to your room.” she said, not looking back towards him, “I will be through to check on you this evening.”

“Looking forward to it, doc.” He said. She stopped at the doorway, turned back and looked at him one more time. He opened one eye and smiled at her. She ducked her head and walked through the door and back to her office, unable to keep herself from smiling the whole way there.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! Also some edits to earlier chapters where I realized my multiple drafts didn't work out as planned!

The next few days passed by in a blur of medications and physical therapy as Jesse recovered from his injuries. He was surprised at how quickly he recovered, but when he asked Angela about it, she simply smiled and said it was a new technology that she was working on. At the end of a week, Angela declared him medically fit for discharge, and told him that Morrison wanted to speak to him as soon as possible. Jesse was nervous as hell that this meant he was either not getting pardoned, or that he was going to be asked to leave and he wouldn’t be able to see Angela again, but he tried to smile through his nerves as he bid Angela goodbye. He started to consider stepping in front of a car on his way out of the place if it meant he would get more time to spend with her. He almost stopped short at these thoughts. Sure, he knew he cared for the doctor. Hell, she’d shown him more care in the past month than he had gotten in the past year, but he hadn’t realized how important she was to him until that very moment. His anxiety started to increase as he continued to walk towards the office, coming to a head as he stopped outside the door.

Jesse could hear a muffled, heated conversation inside Morrison’s office as he knocked on the door. Morrison opened it with a thunderous look on his face. His demeanor did not improve as he beckoned him to enter the room and closed the door behind them.

“Kid, how would you like to be a hero?” Reyes swung his boots off of Morrison’s desk and turned towards the door. Morrison shook his head and walked behind his desk, adjusting the items that had been scattered by Reyes’ boots.

“That the way you start all of your pitches, sir?” McCree said with a laugh, although he noticed his nerves were increasing.

“Damned doc wouldn’t shut up about you.” Morrison grumbled, putting his head in his hands, “She wanted us to make sure you got your pardon, as promised.”

“Which has been done. Congratulations, kid, you’re a free man.” Reyes said, cutting Morrison off, “But Doctor Ziegler mentioned something that caught my attention. You’re a good shot, it sounds like.”

“I ain’t bad.” Jesse said with a shrug

“This organization could use someone like you, you know.” Reyes replied

“Overwatch?”

“No,” Reyes began

“You know I don’t agree with this, Gabriel.” Morrison said, cutting Reyes off before he could continue.

“That’s why we formed Blackwatch, Jack. So you don’t have to.” Reyes bit back

“What’s Blackwatch?” Jesse interrupted, hoping to stop the two from fighting about this any more than it seemed they already had.

“My division. Covert ops. People who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty to get the job done. I’d like to take you down to the range, see whether your aim really is as good as the doctor says. If it is, I’d like to offer you a place on the team.” Reyes said with a smile as Morrison continued fuming

“And if it’s not?”

“You walk out those front gates a free man.”

“Well, then. I guess we’d better get started.” Jesse smirked, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. If he was on Blackwatch, he would stay at Watchpoint Grand Mesa. Staying at Grand Mesa meant more time spent with Angela. He sent up a silent prayer that his aim hadn’t gotten too rusty from lack of practice.

McCree kept pace with Reyes as they walked across the compound. They reached a high tech shooting range where several other people were practicing. Reyes walked all the way through to an open range near the back.

“Alright, kid. Ever used a laser pistol before?” he said, holding a high tech gun out towards Jesse.

“If it’s all the same to you, sir, I’d rather use my peacekeeper.” he replied with a bit of a smirk, unholstering his gun and showing it to Reyes.

“Single action revolver or double?”

“Double, with a fan the hammer modification.”

“Huh. Can’t say I’ve ever seen a gun like that. Still, kind of old fashioned, small clip, loud. Sure you don’t want something you can do more with? If you don’t like this laser pistol, we’ve got plenty of others in the armory.”

“I’m pretty sure I can do enough with this.”

“We’ll see if that’s confidence or arrogance here in a second kid. Shoot the first target.” Reyes said, handing a pair of earplugs over to Jesse and gesturing to the range. They both put their earplugs in and Jesse looked down range, holding his revolver at waist level. He held it up and away from him, carefully lined up his shot, and pulled the trigger. A miss, but not by much. Jesse loaded a bullet into the empty chamber, taking deep breaths to calm himself and to focus on the task at hand. He shot again, and a ping echoed through the room.

“Bullseye. Nice shot kid. Now shoot the next five.” Reyes said, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. In one effortless, fluid motion, McCree aimed and shot at the next five targets, a pinging noise following each shot. He held after the last shot for a moment before starting to reload.

“Well I’ll be damned. You sure made that look easy. Not bad. Course the people and omnics we’re up against won’t be standing still.” Reyes said as he pushed a button that caused six more targets to move onto the range. They moved erratically, left and right, back and forth, up and down. McCree finished loading and looked up. He took another deep breath to concentrate and fired all six of his shots in quick succession. Reyes stopped the targets and brought them forwards to the front of the range. Each one had a hole neatly punched through the bullseye.

“Damn, kid. You weren’t pulling my leg when you said you were ‘not too bad’. Shit, if I could shoot this well from downrange, I would’ve been a sniper. Needless to say you’ve passed. Welcome to Blackwatch. Follow me, I’ll get you kitted out and show you where you’ll be staying.”

**********************

“Well, I must say, that I am certainly glad to see you, Jesse. And I hear that congratulations are in order to Blackwatch’s newest recruit.” Angela said, running up alongside Jesse as he walked down the hallway past her office.

“Didn’t trust them to actually keep to their word about getting me that pardon?” Jesse laughed, tugging at the hem of his new regulation shirt.

“I would have had to have a long and strongly worded conversation with them if they had not. They would have regretted their decision quickly, I am sure.”

“Remind me to stay off of your bad side.” he laughed, placing his hand on her shoulder. She hesitated for a moment before turning towards him and engulfing him in a hug, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest. He was surprised, but almost immediately his arms wrapped around her.

“I realized I never got a chance to thank you.” she whispered with a sigh. She felt more than heard him chuckle a little as she heard his heart beating quickly in his chest.

“It’s me who should be thanking you, doc. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be with the gang, or beat up in a ditch somewhere. I had to choose who to be. Reckon I wouldn’t have liked the person I was if I’d let them sell you to Talon.” he said sheepishly. Angela found she did not want to let go of their embrace, and he wasn’t making a move to. She felt safe, comfortable, loved. She wasn’t usually one to initiate physical contact, but this cowboy seemed to be her exception. Reluctantly she released him, and looked down, unable to bring herself to look him in the face.

“I suppose I should go get ready for dinner.” Angela said, gathering her boldness and looking up at him again, in spite of the jitters she felt while doing so, “Shall I save you a seat in the cafeteria?”

“Why don’t we meet up and walk over together? I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t know if I could find my way there by myself, least before all the food was gone.” Jesse laughed, sending a spark of joy through Angela’s chest.

“I would like that.” Angela replied with a smile, trying to keep her voice steady as she and Jesse lapsed into companionable silence as they walked towards the residential area.

  
Their walk was interrupted, however, by the booming voice of a boisterous German knight, who marched down the hall towards them, thundering with every footstep.

“Ah! You must be the new recruits! I am Reinhardt, and...Angela!” Reinhardt said as the two broke their embrace. He ran forward and scooped Angela up into a bear hug, sweeping her feet off of the ground.

“It is good to see you, Reinhardt!” she laughed kicking her feet a bit until the knight placed her back down onto the ground.

“And you as well, Angela! How is our little angel doing? It has been, what, two years since we last saw each other?”

“I am fine Reinhardt, just fine! It has been a little over two years, if I am not mistaken, far too long. I heard you were away overseeing the new Watchpoint when I arrived.”

“It has been far too long indeed, Miss Ziegler! And I arrived here just this morning. Gibraltar is beautiful! Torbjorn is there, and I am sure he would have been happy to see you, as well.” he proclaimed, clapping her on the back in his excitement.

“I look forward to seeing him again, for sure.” she laughed stepping back next to Jesse.

“And this must be our new recruit?” Reinhardt said, turning towards Jesse.

“Jesse McCree, pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir.” McCree stepped forward and extended his hand, which Reinhardt took, engulfing his hand in his massive grip and shaking it firmly.

“Ah yes! You are the one that I am supposed to take on the tour! Jack told me about you. Welcome! And what are your intentions with our young doctor Ziegler, Jesse McCree?”

“Reinhardt leave the poor man alone. At least take us on the tour before you harass him further.” Angela said with a laugh, though she could feel a hot flush igniting her features.

“Right! Right! That is what I am here for! Now prepare yourself for the glory of Watchpoint Grand Mesa! Although Gibraltar is much nicer. State of the art! I’m looking forward to working there as soon as it is finished!” Reinhardt said enthusiastically as he began to walk down the hallway. McCree and Angela had to walk quickly to keep up with what Angela was sure was a leisurely pace for the large German knight.

Reinhardt gave them a very enthusiastic and very complete tour of the facilities, ranging from the cafeteria, the shooting ranges, the labs, the infirmary, and the main offices to what felt like every bathroom on campus and three separate ways to get up onto the roof. Whenever someone passed them going to opposite direction, Reinhardt would stop and greet them enthusiastically, introducing them to Angela, even though she had met most of them during her time in Grand Mesa, and Jesse. Angela used the time in between what Reinhardt deemed important locations to think about the man standing beside her. She was proud of him, and ever so happy that he was with her right now. She had hoped that her not-so-subtle comments directed at Commanders Morrison and Reyes over the past week would give them the idea that Jesse would be a good agent, and she was so happy that he was with her now. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt his hand bump into hers as they rounded a corner. Her heart leaped in her throat at the unintentional and unexpected contact, but she hoped that it would happen again. A few moments later, it did, and she blushed. When their hands brushed a third time, she gathered her courage and grabbed it in hers, lacing her fingers in between his. She looked straight ahead for a few moments, too nervous to look over to the cowboy standing next to her. Her heart was absolutely racing at this point, and she was certain her face was tomato red, but she was comforting herself with the thought that at least he had not let go. She glanced over after gathering herself for a few moments to see that Jesse’s ears were bright pink and he was absolutely beaming. She sighed in happiness and relief, and the two continued holding hands throughout their tour before Reinhardt brought them back to the entrance to the living areas.

“And so we have returned! Now, do either of you have any questions?” he turned to face the two of them. Jesse relaxed his grip on Angela’s hand slightly and she reluctantly let go.

“I do not think so, Reinhardt, you have certainly given us a very comprehensive tour.” Angela said with a smile

“Ain’t no way I’m gonna get lost, now. Pretty sure you’ve showed us every inch of the facility.” Jesse smirked

“Thank you! You are both too kind. I have been working on it! I insist on giving tours to all of the new recruits. Setting you up for success is what I call it! Now, if the two of you will excuse me, I promised Ana that I would be meeting her for dinner. And, Angela! Don’t forget that you have a meeting with Jack tonight to discuss your research in, “he glanced down at his watch, “Gott im Himmel, ten minutes! I apologize! You’d best be on your way there, Jack despises tardiness. Farewell to you both! I look forward to seeing both of you around the Watchpoint!” He shook Jesse’s hand and swept Angela up into another crushing hug before striding away from them down the hall.

“I suppose that I should be on my way then.” Angela said, glancing up at Jesse with a blush coloring her cheeks.

“Yeah, don’t want to get the commander upset with you. I’ll be seeing you around, though, yeah?” he asked

  
“I would certainly like that.” she could feel a thrill of energy course through her as he reached out and pulled her into another hug. She felt so safe and warm and loved, even as she felt her heart rate start to increase and her blush starting to deepen. She broke the hug after a few seconds.

“Good evening, Jesse.”

“‘Night, Angela.”


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know what you think!

Two months. Two months had passed at the watchpoint and Jesse had hardly seen his blonde doctor. Training was gruelling. Gabriel would wake the recruits up at four every morning for a ten mile run before breakfast, which they would eat as soon as the cafeteria opened at six. Then it was weight lifting, calisthenics, firearm training, strategy education, more running, cleaning the barracks, dinner, then collapsing into bed at 9:00PM sharp. The few times he did see Angela was in passing in the cafeteria or when their morning run went long and he ran into her starting her run away from the watchpoint as they were returning. He hadn’t realize how much he had grown to depend on her for companionship in their few short days together and, even though he was growing closer to the other Blackwatch recruits, he found that he desperately wanted to see her as often as he could. Any time he saw a flash of blonde hair or heard her laugh, he couldn’t help but look around to try to catch a glimpse of her. They’d brush hands if they passed in the hallway, he’d tap her shoulder and wave as he walked by her table as he was leaving the cafeteria with his squadron, but any time it seemed like they would have a moment to talk, she would be pulled back to the lab by an excitable tech or Reyes would yell at him to keep up and they’d only say hello and goodbye and how are you before being whisked away to their duties.

“Remember, recruits, perfection brings speed. I want all of you to be able to complete every task I give you quickly, but if it’s not done perfectly it’s not worth having done at all, understand?” Gabriel said, walking around the room inspecting the reassembled guns presented to him by the recruits.

“Yes, sir.” the recruits echoed back

“Good, let’s do it again. You may begin.” Jesse disassembled and reassembled his six shooter with ease. He’d been cleaning it every night since his dad taught him how to do it when he was eight. He was always the first person done, even when Reyes threw them a curve ball by having them switch weapons (blasters were a whole hell of a lot easier to maintain, but nothing in the world would convince Jesse to modernize). 

“Still don’t know why we have to do this stupid exercise.” One of the recruits next to Jesse muttered. Jesse felt his eyes grow wide as Reyes abruptly stopped pacing.

“What was that Peters?” Reyes said, turning quickly on his heel and making eye contact with the recruit.

“I said, I don’t know why we have to do this so many times. When are we ever going to use this?” Peters said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back.

“Would any of you be willing to tell Peters why this is important. McCree?”

“If your gun jams in the field, you want to be able to get it apart, unjammed, and back together fast.” McCree responded feigning nonchalance.

“Modern blasters don’t jam. And they basically don’t malfunction. McCree’s the only one of us who needs to be doing this, and he’s already the best in our class.” Peters said, rolling his eyes.

“Ever? You sure about that?” Reyes walked over to Peters’ table and began to reassemble his weapon without looking at it. “Let’s say it almost never malfunctions. How about once every ten thousand times you fire it. It’s a dependable weapon, no need to worry. But what if that on time iis when you’re on assignment? When a working weapon is all that stands between you and death? What if you’re somewhere where you can’t see? If you don’t want the muscle memory to deal with those ‘what if’ situations, then Overwatch may not be the organization for you.” he set the assembled weapon down on Peters’ desk.

“Now, if you all would follow me, I’m feeling like another run. Recruits? Fall in.” Reyes said, striding out of the room.

“Yes sir.” the recruits responded as they stood up and followed Reyes as he ran across the yard.

****

Angela knew that she was going to have little time for herself once she arrived at the watchpoint, but what she hadn’t realized was just how much her research would advance. She woke up every morning, either in bed, on the lab benchtop, or passed out at her desk in her clinic, absolutely exhausted but so excited to see what new discoveries the day would bring. This day, however, was different. Every experiment lead to a dead end, every piece of data was flawed, and every time she felt that she made even the slightest bit of progress, she found something else that set her work back by a week or more. She glanced over at her datapad. She wanted to talk to someone about it. Reinhardt would be too enthusiastic, Torbjorn would try to fix the problem, Ana would be kind but bored to tears, and all of the other scientists would either use the opportunity to gloat or be uninterested in talking about anyone’s work but their own. 

She sighed in frustration and buried her head in her hands. She could ask...but no. He was far too busy, and also likely to be uninterested. They hadn’t talked for more than a few seconds in so long. Still, there was no harm in asking, right? What is the worst that could happen?

“Are you free this evening?” she sent the message to Jesse over the datapad. She turned and looked back over to her experimental data, pretending that she was not glancing down every few seconds to check for a response. She jumped as the datapad lit up, and looked at the message.

“I have guard duty, is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything is fine. Hard day of work is all, no worries.” she set the datapad down, fully expecting that to be the end of the conversation. She was surprised to see it light up again.

“Just switched with Njeri. Meet me in the rec room?” Angela felt a flood of warmth sweep over her as she read the message. She replied that she would be there in a few minutes, before gathering her things and heading out of the lab.

When she arrived, Jesse was sitting on a couch in the center of the room watching some ancient television show with men wearing cowboy hats on their heads and pistols on their hips. She walked over and sat down next to Jesse, who smiled broadly at her.

“Angela! Glad to see you here! It’s been ages.”

“It certainly has been.” she said, leaning up against his side.

“Didn’t realize when we signed up for this that we’d be the only people under the age of twenty five in the entire base.” he smirked as he looked down at her.

“That’s because I did not know! My assumptions, apparently, were incorrect.”

“Everyone treat you like their kid sibling who doesn’t know what they’re talking about?”

“Yes, it certainly is annoying is it not?”

“Hit the nail on the head doc.” he said with a laugh. The two lapsed into silence, their faces illuminated by the flickering light from the television screen. Angela looked up at McCree to see him turning his head from looking down at her to watching the television again.

“What are we watching?” she asked with a small yawn.

“Old show called Bonanza. My pa was a huge fan. He’d put it on every Saturday morning.”

“I can see why you would be a fan as well. All of those men seem to dress and act quite like you.”

“Picked up on that, did you? Always wanted to be just like them, kinda reckoned dressing like it’s the first step. Least, that’s what I thought as a kid. Habit stuck. Earlier you said you had a hard day of work?”

“Yes. It seems that no matter what I do, something always goes wrong with some experiment or another.” Angela sighed in frustration, “ I feel as though I am on the verge of a breakthrough and everything just goes wrong. It is enough to make me feel as though I am losing my mind. And, on top of everything else, I am the only physician in the building who takes walk in patients, so every time someone gets a cold or stubs their toe it drags me away from my work. Not that I dislike caring for patients, after all it is why I wanted to become a doctor since I was a small girl, but if I have to see one more case of ‘I do not want to go to work today stomach flu’ I will slam my head into the wall.” she said. After saying all of that she felt a bit deflated, but in a nice way. As if everything she had pent up inside of her for the past few months had left her completely and she was finally able to relax.

“Here,” Jesse laughed, handing her a small silver flask, “seems like you need this more than I do.” she took a large drink from the whiskey in the flask, relishing in the burn as it went down her throat.

“Thank you.” she said with a small laugh as she handed the flask back.

“Anytime, doc, anytime.” he laughed, taking a drink himself before tucking the flask away. She sighed and leaned up next to him on the couch, watching but not paying attention to the screen. She found it harder and harder to keep her eyes open, and after a few moments she fell dead asleep.

When she awoke the next morning, Jesse was gone but she could still feel the warmth from where he had been. She was covered in the soft green blanket from the back of the couch, and as her eyes adjusted she noticed her pillow was the cowboy’s folded up sarape. She laid her head down on the pillow and took a deep breath, breathing in his scent of whiskey, cigars, and the desert, and told herself that it would not be so terribly awful if she did not go for a run that morning.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all are the best!

“Alright, recruits, I’ll see you in the morning. Good work out there today.” Reyes said, nodding as he left the barracks. The room was mostly quiet, other than some soft murmuring and the rustling of sheets as people collapsed exhausted into bed. Jesse laid down on top of his covers, hands folded behind his head, and stared up at the bunk above him. For the first time since he arrived at Overwatch, he found that he just wasn’t able to fall asleep. Maybe he was getting used to the early mornings and conditioning and wasn’t tired enough. Or maybe he couldn’t get last month’s movie night with Angela out of his head.

The soft snores he heard around him were grating after a few minutes, and he felt like he had to go somewhere to get some peace and quiet. With hardly a sound, he slipped on his red sarape, his hat, and his boots and made his way out of the dormitory. Grateful for Reinhardt’s extensive tour, he found the nearest way to get onto the roof and climbed up. The night air of the desert washed over him, and he took a deep breath, breathing in the smell of dust and starlight. He walked over to the edge of the roof and stared across the Watchpoint and to the desert beyond, hardly illuminated at all in the glow of the crescent moon. He took another deep breath before he lit a cigar, taking a few puffs with a sigh.

“Jesse?” he started as he heard a soft female voice behind him. He recognized it immediately. Angela. He turned around to see her slight figure sitting a few feet behind him, back pressed against a metal utility box. The moon was just bright enough to make out her pale features, and he couldn’t help but beam at her.

“Angela? What are you doing up here?” he asked as his heart stopped and started and a warm flush spread over his cheeks and up his ears.

“I could be asking you the same question! Come over here and sit next to me. It is good to see you.” she said warmly. Jesse put out his cigar on the concrete at the edge of the roof and walked towards her.

“It’s good to see you too! I, well, I’ve missed you.” he said, sitting next to her. She immediately scooted over next to him and wrapped her arm around his waist, leaning her head on his shoulder. He extricated his arm and wrapped it around her drawing her closer to his side.

“I have missed you too, Jesse.” she sighed, snuggling closer. Jesse found himself at a bit of a loss for words at the closeness of their contact, but eventually gathered his thoughts and replied,

“It sure has been a while, hasn’t it? A couple of weeks since that night in the rec room?”

“Yes. Between your training and my research, I suppose neither of us has had much free time. How is your training going?”

“Reyes is a slave driver, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t know what he is doing. He’s taken this sorry batch of recruits and shaped us into real Overwatch agents. Most of us, at least.” he chuckled

“I had noticed you have gained a good deal of muscle mass since we have joined.” she smirked

“You’ve been checking me out, doc?” he felt a warm flush spread over his cheeks and was grateful for the low light. It had been years since he felt all doe eyed and knocked kneed because of a pretty girl, but damn if this one didn’t make him feel just that.

“Purely medical observation, I assure you.” she laughed, her voice pitched a bit higher than normal.

“And how has your research been going?”

“Wonderful! I only have to run my clinic once a week, other than walk in appointments, and therefore I have made so many advances since I have been here. I have made a way for the nanoparticulate surgical beam I invented to not only project farther, but lock on to a target! This will mean that during combat I will be able to heal from a distance instead of relying on being directly next to the injured agent which, as you could infer, means the medic will be safer in the field. Now I am working on a method to travel between wounded faster.”

“All of that in just a few months? No wonder Overwatch was itching to bring you aboard if that’s what you’ve been able to get done. Sounds like you’re gonna be able to do a whole lot of good out there, doc.”

“I certainly hope so! I have made more progress in the last two months than I have in the last two years!”

“You know, I’ve been hearing some of the other recruits calling you Overwatch’s Angel of Mercy.”

“How dramatic. I am simply doing my job.”

“I think they’re pretty spot on, myself.”

“Not you, too!” she laughed and rolled her eyes. Jesse chuckled in response and the pair lapsed into comfortable silence.

Without conversation to distract him, Jesse found himself focusing more on the warmth of the woman beside him and the feeling of her pressed up next to him, under his arm. His heart still felt like a fish flip flopping around in his chest, but holding her like this just felt right. It felt like home. He glanced down at the blonde crown of her head and felt a surge of affection and warmth towards brilliant doctor. It’s how he had imagined his parents must have felt as they sat on the porch together watching him playing in the yard, or on the couch watching a movie, or any time they could possibly manage it. This is perfect. He thought as he took a sigh and willed the night to never end.

“Have you heard the news about the Watchpoint in Gibraltar?” Angela said, looking up at him excitedly, breaking his reverie.

“No, nothing in particular.” he responded, hoping she wouldn’t note the small shake in his voice.

“Well I overheard Reinhardt and Captain Amari speaking the other day. It sounds like the watchpoint is completed and Overwatch will be returning their main base of operations to there.”

“That’s great! It’ll be nice to see a different part of the world. Never thought I was going to honestly. When are we shipping out?”

“I am uncertain, but I certainly am looking forward to it. I have been told that my research lab there will be state of the art. I will have many more ways to work on my nanosurgical technology, and Torbjorn has already promised to help me with the Valkyrie project. Hopefully when we are there we will be able to see each other more often. Your friendship has become very dear to me, you know.”

“I hope so too, Angela. And you have become...very dear to me, too. Guess I just got used to your company when we were back at the Deadlock base. Didn’t realize how little we were gonna see of each other when we got you here. ”

“I did not realize either.” she replied with a note of sadness, “but at least we are together, yes?”

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, his thumb rubbing circles on her shoulder. Jesse considered himself to be a bit of a talker, not always the most comfortable with an unfilled silence, but this was nice. It was nice having someone he could just be with and not have to worry about what to say or do next. She seemed absolutely comfortable just sitting here and saying nothing with him. He felt her shiver slightly in the cool night air, and drew her a bit closer to his side.

“I am happy to have you here, Jesse.” she said with a note of hesitation, “The last two months have been rather difficult, if I am being honest. My research is going well, of course, but with the news of more omnic uprisings, we have all just been waiting for the news that we will be given a field mission. And, well, yesterday was my sister’s birthday. She would have been fourteen. I’ve been avoiding thinking about it, and when I wanted to talk to someone, the only person I could think to tell was you.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you, doc.” he said sadly. Angela gave a sad chuckle and waved her hand.

“Oh, it was not your fault. It is just hard to make friends when everyone you work with is at least twelve years older than you, and most see you as some upstart child with too much book knowledge and not enough life experience. I swear that Captain Amari thinks I am the same age as her Fareeha, heaven knows she treats me as such.”

“I understand that too, doc. Most of the guys I’m in training with are accomplished scientists, commanders, and engineers and the like, recruited to Overwatch either for their inventions or their strategic minds. Feel like I’m some hick whippersnapper who they see as an annoying kid brother.” he paused for a few moments before continuing, “I’m glad we both decided to come up here tonight.”

A few moments passed and a light breeze blew off of the desert. Jesse could feel Angela shiver and move closer into his side.

“Tell me about your sister.” he said through the quiet night of the desert.

“Elena? She was wonderful. We fought, of course, as all sisters do, but she was so very kind. I remember one day she found a small rabbit by our house. She came to me to help her care for it and we took care of it for weeks without our parents finding out. She must have been only seven or eight at the time, but was determined to be a veterinarian from that day forward. She somehow talked my very neat and orderly mother into allowing her to get a pet and instead of something manageable like a cat or a small dog she and my father came home with an old, blind Saint Bernard she named Otto. I swear, my mother made my father sleep on the couch for a week, but eventually she grew to love Otto as much as the rest of us did.”

“Sounds like you had a real nice family.”

“They were. I miss them.” she paused for a few moments, “Do you have any siblings?”

“Nah, just me, my ma, and my pa. Ma died when I was pretty young, too. Bad lungs or something like that. Couldn’t afford treatment. Pa was a couple years older than her, and died of a heart attack a couple of years after her. Was basically on my own by the age of thirteen.”

“I am very sorry. You said earlier your pa taught you to shoot?”

“Yep. He learned from his pa and he learned from his pa all the way back. He was a quiet man, but the kind where if he said something you shut up and listened. Whip smart with a wicked sense of humor to boot. Told stories about his buddies and old family members like you knew them. Loved ma more than he loved his own life. I think he’d have liked you.”

“Why is that?” she asked, turning her head to gaze up at him. He felt his cheeks flush, and was once again grateful for the cover of darkness

“You’re confident, smart. You can see right through someone and all but read their minds. A lot like him, if I’m being honest. Plus he valued kindness, something that anyone can see you’ve got in spades.”

“I wish I could have met him.”

“Yeah, I wish you could too.” his voice cracked slightly as the two nestled closer together, leaning back against the large metal box.

“Would you look at that! A shooting star!” Jesse said, pointing to where the white streak had sped across the sky.

“The first of many, I hope. That is why I came up here, you know. The Perseid meteor shower is tonight.”

“Well, ain’t it my lucky day. Gonna get all sorts of wishes...look there, see? Another one! Now we both gotta make a wish!”

“And what are you going to wish for, Jesse?” she said teasingly as she looked up at him, the hair from her messy blonde bun falling around her face.

“Now I can’t tell you, that would mean it won’t come true!” he laughed

“Then I am not telling you mine.” she fake pouted. She held the face for only a few moments before laughing as she turned her attention upwards once again.

“Fair is fair, I suppose.” he laughed as Angela pressed her cheek into his shoulder, and thought I wish this moment would never end.

*****

They awoke the next morning to a pink and purple sunrise, stiff, sore, and more than a little cold. At one point in the night, Angela had moved to sitting between McCree’s legs to use him as a cushion for her stargazing, and he awoke to her laying face down on his chest, while he was laying flat on his back. Her eyes were bleary and open, looking up at him, her hair ruffled. He’d never seen anything so beautiful. Seeing her like this sent a jolt from his heart to his stomach, causing him to be overwhelmed with a surge of affection towards “Overwatch’s Angel of Mercy”, and he smiled.

“Good morning beautiful.” he said, his voice thick and cracked with sleep.

“Good morning, Jesse.” she with a small yawn as she snuggled down onto his chest again.

“Sleep okay?”

“Wonderfully. You had best be careful or I will put in a request for your transfer to acting as my personal pillow.”

“Can’t say I’d object to that.” they laughed as Angela stood up, stretching her arms above her head, arching her back with a soft groan. The blonde of her hair was illuminated by the sunrise, which was otherwise casting her in silhouette.

“You know, looking at you right now, I think I might believe some of the gossip.” Jesse said quietly and sincerely.

“And what is that?” she asked, turning to look towards him.

“That you’re a bonafide angel that fell to earth to help our mere mortals.”

“You stop that!” she said with a laugh, sitting down beside him again.

“Hey ma’am, you should know me by now. I may be many things, but I ain’t a liar.” he smile, glanced down with his watch, and groaned, “But if I’m not in the yard for our morning run soon I may very well be an honest dead man.” Reluctantly he stood up, offering Angela a hand. She took it and stood beside him, wrapping her arms around his waist once more and breathing a heavy sigh. If Reyes noticed during training that day that McCree was yawning more than usual, he didn’t mention it.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thank you for bearing with me! This last month has been pretty hectic, and I decided to take this story in a slightly different direction than I originally intended, which necessitated a lot of rewrites. Hopefully I will be able to update a bit more regularly after this!

Angela walked down one of the many long hallways of Watchpoint Grand Mesa, looking intently at her datapad. Torbjorn had just sent her schematics for the Valkyrie suit she had envisioned, and she was eager to return to her room to look at them on a larger scale and with more detail. She rounded the last corner towards her room in the staff wing when she collided with something hard. She lost her balance and tripped forward, landing on her stomach on the warm body of the man she had collided with, clutching her datapad to her chest to prevent it from breaking. She looked up and saw a very dazed McCree looking down at her with an unreadable expression.

  
“Oh! Jesse! What a pleasant surprise, running into you like this!” Angela said from on top of him with a laugh.

  
“Looks like you swept me off my feet, doc.” he said with a wink, that caused her to warm all over. She laughed again, stood up, and offered him her hand. He took it and stood in front of her, not quite making eye contact with her.

  
“I must not have been paying attention to where I was going. I was looking at the schematics for my new Valkyrie...is everything alright? You seem upset.” she said, noticing his strange expression. He shuffled on his feet for a moment, reaching up to rub the back of his neck with his hand.

  
“I, well, my team got a mission assignment today.” Angela felt her heart skip. She knew that this was part of being an Overwatch agent, that they had sworn to do what it took to protect the innocents of the world, but even since her time at the watchpoint she had taken care of several agents who had barely returned from their missions, and attended the funerals of a few who had never returned at all.

  
“Oh? What is this mission?” she asked cautiously, trying not to let her worry shine through.

  
“Pretty straightforward. Just supposed to take out some bad guys. In and out, nothing fancy.”

  
“That is good, though, yes?”

  
“Suppose.” He tapped the toe of his boot on the ground, the clinging of his spur echoing in the empty hallway.

  
“Something else is troubling you, Jesse, what is it?”

  
“I, uh, I’m probably not supposed to say. At least, I don’t think it’s something I want to be talking about in a hallway.”

  
“Follow me, then, my room is just around this corner.” she said, grabbing his hand and walking him into the wing of rooms reserved for officers. She pulled him into her impeccably clean room and locked the door behind him.

  
“Come, sit next to me.” she said as she sat on her bed, motioning to a spot next to her. He sat down beside her on the blue bedspread, the springs sinking a bit under his weight, causing the two of them to shift towards each other. She suddenly became hyperaware that the two of them were sitting very close to each other, alone, on her bed, in her room, and the thought of it made heat pool in her stomach. “Now,” she continued, grabbing one of his hands from his lap, “tell me, what is bothering you?”

  
“Doc, Angela,” he began, rubbing the back of his neck, “Now like I said this isn’t something I’m supposed to talk about, but it turns out this mission we're going on is against the Deadlock gang.”

“Oh, Jesse…” she began, but he cut her off.

  
“Now, I know what you’re thinking. And I don’t have a problem with this, I don’t, well, not much, it’s just...you know what one of the people on my team said to me, Angela? That if the mission went sideways that everyone would know it was my fault. Hell, I already know most of them don’t trust me half as far as they can throw me anyways just because of who and what I am, but knowing that if anything goes wrong they’ll blame me...” He stood up and paced across the room, looking at the featureless white wall.

  
“But…”

  
“And the worst thing is, they might be right. I don’t know if I can look at Ashe or anyone else from the gang in the eye and pull the trigger. They were my family. But the truth is I know that if I don’t pull the trigger, good people end up hurt or dead. So I know what I have to do, I’m just afraid that I won’t be brave enough to do it.”

  
“Jesse,”

  
“And the fact that I still can’t stomach the thought of killing those sons of bitches after the hell they almost put you through…”

  
“Jesse, verdammt let me finish what I am saying!” she said, walking up closer to him to the point where they were standing close enough to where she could feel the heat radiating off of him, and smell his warm, masculine scent of soap and leather that she had become so familiar with over the past few weeks and months. Jesse fell silent, maintaining eye contact with the wall or his shoes or anything other than with her. She sighed in frustration and continued,

  
“I believe that you are a good man, Jesse McCree. I do not think any less of you because you would hesitate before taking another’s life, I think it is what makes you strong and good, and I do not believe I would have come to care for you as I have if you were any different.” Angela said, stopping short, her eyes widening as she recognized what she had said. Jesse looked up from the floor and met her eyes, and time stood still. Every nerve was aflame with his proximity, and she was torn between stepping forward and stepping back, settling instead for staying planted firmly where she was.

  
“Angela, I’ve...well, saying I’ve come to care for you too seems like it’s not enough. I’ve always thought I was good with words, but you just had to walk into my life and steal them all away.” he laughed, breaking eye contact for just a moment before looking at her again. Angela couldn’t stand the heat of his gaze and looked away, but instantly missed the warmth. She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, her heart skipping anew as she noticed his eyes flickering between her eyes and her lips.  
“Angela, I’m scared.” he sighed, stepping slightly away from her and rubbing his neck with the back of his hand,”The whole gang knows my face, they all know I betrayed them, and this mission would be dangerous even if they didn’t.”  
“I will be waiting for you when you return. Jesse, return to me.”

**********

  
“This is Josiah Decatur AKA Joe Winterburg, and he is one mean son of a bitch.” Reyes said, tapping his picture on the datapad as he addressed the room full of the newest Blackwatch initiates. Jesse looked at the blurry picture of Joe and felt his anger build as he remembered him laughing as he pushed Angela to the floor, the look in her eyes when she talked about his order to murder innocent civilians. He supposed that of all the members of the gang, it wouldn’t be too terribly difficult to muster the will to take him down.

“We’ve got him connected to a string of murders, robberies, and kidnappings across the Southwest, and we want to bring him to justice. The Deadlock Gang has grown some teeth ever since he joined up with them. Our mission is to get in quiet and take him out before anyone knows we’re there. Course if all of this goes belly-up it may be we have to fight our way out, but I’d like to avoid that if at all possible.”

“And,” Morrison interrupted sternly, “since it is your first mission we would be remiss in warning you that this is a dangerous one, given the circumstances.”

“The mission is important, but you all are too, never forget that. There are no heroes on this squad, if the mission is failed, we back out and live to try again another day. Now, let’s talk strategy,” Reyes replied, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.

**************

The stealthed hovercraft silently came to life and picked up off of the ground, causing Jesse to check his seat belt, tighten his grip on the armrests, and close his eyes. God damn it he hated flying. The craft dipped a bit and he opened his eyes and looked out to see the base lights of the base receding in the distance (and if he convinced himself really hard he could almost imagine that he saw Angela waving at him from the roof, next to the utility box where they had watched the stars fall from the sky).

  
“You alright there, McCree?” Commander Reyes asked from across the way. His arms were crossed in front of his chest and one eyebrow was cocked, looking at McCree like he could see right through him.

  
“Yes sir, Commander Reyes, just fine. Just not too keen on flying is all.” McCree said with a fake laugh as the craft picked up speed.

  
“Well, lucky for you this craft should get us there within the hour. Don’t go falling asleep on me, I’m gonna need you sharp for the mission, you got it?”

  
“Yes, sir.” McCree said, turning his attention to the window once again. There was no moon tonight, and the only thing he could see out of his window were the endless stars.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was absolute hell to write. Hope it turned out okay! Reaching the homestretch at this point, probably. I have a lot of cute scenes that I cut, but maybe I'll just make a series of oneshots. I feel like the plot of this one is closing out.

The Blackwatch hovercraft touched down under the cover of darkness well outside the camp, the half moon softly glinting off the silver metal. Jesse hopped out of the hovercraft and turned to face the empty horizon. Under the light of the moon and the millions of stars, the desert glowed a pale blue, the dust kicked up by the incessant wind glittering in the starlight. It was peaceful, eerily quiet, and Jesse took a long, deep breath to calm his nerves, before turning back to his team.

“All you now, cowboy.” Reyes laughed, gesturing for Jesse to take the lead. He stepped out in front and the five Blackwatch agents slowly followed Jesse as he led them to the hidden canyon. The canyon floor was poorly lit, the floodlights turned off as Jesse knew the would be. He could see a few guards huddled around a small campfire in the middle, but the wind and distance prevented him from hearing their conversation or recognizing them. Probably for the best.

Jesse took the group down the steep, narrow path that led from the wall of the canyon to the floor. He took a moment at the bottom to duck behind the cars parked at the end of the path and look out towards the campfire once again. The guards were missing.

“Well, either it’s our lucky day, or there’s going to be trouble.” Reyes said quietly, and Jesse nodded in agreement. He signalled for the team to follow him towards the bunker and, after spending a few seconds to deactivate the lock, led them all inside.

The harsh light in the bunker blinded him temporarily, and he blinked several times before his eyes adjusted. He looked over to see Njeri working on the security panel near the door.

“There. She said, turning back to the group. I have disabled the security cameras. And the lights should be going out in three, two…” the hallway was plunged into darkness, but Jesse could feel Njeri smiling from next to him.

“Good work. Next step, finding our man.” Reyes said stepping into the hallway. Jesse stepped beside him and began to walk his team through the maze of hallways.

“Would have thought we would have run into at least one person patrolling. Or hell even someone looking into the power going out. I’ve got a bad feeling about this, commander.” Jesse whispered, the intense feeling of dread in his stomach worsening with every breath, “I reckon we should get out of here. Pretty sure they know something’s up.”

“I’m the one in command here, soldier,” Reyes said, grabbing Jesse’s collar from beside him, “there’s no quitting the mission. We continue.” Reyes released his hold on Jesse, but not before Jesse noticed that Reyes’ gloves were ice cold brushing against his skin in spite of the desert heat.

“You got it, sir.” Jesse said reluctantly, leading the group down a few more darkened hallways until they reached a nondescript door in the middle of the hall.

“This it?” Reyes whispered. Jesse nodded. With one swift motion, Reyes burst through the door into the small room and turned on his flashlight. The bed was mussed, a few sets of clothes were thrown haphazardly over a chair next to a perfectly clean desk. The closet door was wide open and empty of clothing. And the room was empty.

“He’s not here.” Njeri whispered

“They knew we were coming.” Jesse said quietly

“Could be he’s on guard duty tonight.” Reyes shrugged

“Higher ups don’t take guard duty. They knew we were coming and they knew what our mission was. And that means they know we’re here.” Jesse said, trying not to panic as adrenaline surged through his body.

“There another way out of this place?” Reyes asked, turning towards Jesse

“Just the one door. Made to be tough to get in to.”

“Then we’re leaving through the door. Everyone be on your guard and be ready to fight. Chances are they’re waiting for us.” Reyes said, pulling his twin shotguns from his hip holsters and marching out of the room. The team made its way through the hallways quickly, no one stopping them, no signs of anyone else in the building. Jesse’s heart squeezed vigorously as they approached the door.

“We open the door on my mark,” Reyes whispered, “Ready?” but before they could move, the lights in the hallway turned on suddenly, flooding the room with bright white light. McCree couldn’t see, he heard the door spring open as he and the other members of his team were grabbed and dragged into the courtyard. Jesse felt himself dragged through the dust and forced to kneel. His six shooter was removed from his holster and his hands were forced behind his head. His eyes adjusted and he saw a two figures standing in front of him, backlit by the courtyard’s floodlights.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here.” Ashe said, stepping towards them, the harsh lights glistening off the steel barrel of her gun, flung effortlessly over her right shoulder. The other figure, Joe, stepped forward, his arms crossed in front of him, smirking at Jesse kneeling on the ground.

“If it isn’t our young Mr. McCree. Seems like it weren’t too far of a leap from runaway to traitor for you, was it.” Ashe laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder

“Ashe…”

“Nah, Jesse, your honeyed words won’t help you here. In case you didn’t notice. We’ve got you surrounded.” She said nonchalantly, as she motioned behind her. Through the shadows, Jesse could see a dozen men standing, guns at the ready, pointed towards the team. 

“Now, you know the Deadlock rules as well as I do. So you know there ain’t no getting out of here alive. Made the mistake of holding you prisoner once. Ain’t gonna make that mistake twice.” Ashe swung the gun off of her shoulder and chambered a bullet with a loud click. Jesse’s heart and mind were racing. All he could think of was how much he regretted not telling Angela how much she meant to him when he had the chance. Now he never would. He chose not to close his eyes. He didn’t want to meet Ashe’s gaze. Instead, he stared back into the middle distance, looking past the floodlit area to the darkness of the canyon wall, picturing Angela as she was the last time he saw her. Professional, flustered, with a blush high on her cheeks and sparkles in her eyes. He took a deep breath in and out and waited for the shot.

Wait. What was that? In the darkness beyond the floodlights, a strange figure moved in between the shadows. It looked like a dust devil, but it was as black as midnight, and Jesse could see the men behind Ashe turning around in confusion as the smoke moved past them.

“What in the goddamned…” one of the guards began before the smoke materialized behind him, knocking him out cold with a loud thump. Jesse swore he could see a white smile materialize out of the smoke before it travelled to its next victim.

“Everyone, open fire!” Ashe screamed, pointing her gun towards Jesse. A heartbeat. Then in an instant, chaos erupted. The black smoke was a whirling dervish around the battlefield, shotguns blazing, taking out soldiers left and right. Jesse looked to his left and noticed Njeri and the other three recruits kneeling beside him, looking around in confusion. Reyes was nowhere to be seen. McCree rolled over to where one of the gang had been taken out and grabbed his six shooter. He stood up and yelled at the four Blackwatch teammates still kneeling to move towards road leading to the hovercraft. They disappeared into the shadows, while McCree covered their retreat. The chaos was good cover, and Jesse soon went to follow them, running into a figure making its way towards the parked land vehicles in the dark. He pointed his gun towards the figure, sprawled on the ground at his feet.

“Well, looks like the tables have turned, cowboy.” Ashe said with a laugh as she raised her hands to her shoulders, red dust hazy in the floodlights from where she had landed. McCree hesitated.

“Well, ain’t you gonna shoot me? I don’t have all day.” She said with a smirk. Jesse paused. No hesitation, not in his line of work. Hesitation is death. He looked from her to the gun in his hand and back again. He knew if their roles were reversed she would shoot without question. Hell, she almost had shot him not five minutes earlier. His index finger fiddled with the trigger. This woman had arranged for Angela’s capture. Ashe had tortured him, almost shot him point blank on the ground, but he couldn’t bring himself to shoot her. No matter his loyalty to Overwatch and Blackwatch, no matter what Ashe would do to him if their situations were reversed, he couldn’t pull the trigger. Because the man who would pull the trigger isn’t the kind of man who would deserve Angela, and even though he knew he’d never be good enough for her, he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to try.

“Get out of here, Ashe.” Jesse said, holstering is gun and walking away from her into the darkness.

“You always were too soft for your own good, McCree.” she called out to him as he walked away.

“Far as I can see, ain’t nothing wrong with that. See you around, Ashe.” he called back, spurs jangling against the dust as he made his way back to his team.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I had the hardest time finishing this story. There were lots of directions I could take it and lots of different things I could write, and between writers block and life getting in the way, it took me forever to finish even this small story. I hate leaving things unfinished, so I figured that I would write what I saw as a satisfying conclusion. Thank you to everyone who gave kudos and commented. You all are seriously the reason I finished this story.

The hovercraft whirred as it settled to the ground inside the courtyard of Watchpoint Grand Mesa, kicking up red dust that swirled in the light of the early dawn. Jesse relaxed his grip on his armrests, and stood on wobbly legs. He sighed in relief as his feet touched solid ground again and, as his adrenaline left his system all at once, felt his head go light and the world start to tilt beneath him. He landed on the ground with a thud and tried not to focus on the oranges and reds of the sky as they tilted and tipped unnaturally. He felt more than saw someone kneel down next to him.

“Jesse? Are you alright?” he heard a soft clear voice say with some urgency, and he tried desperately to focus on the face above him. Angela’s face.

“Yeah, Angela, I’m just fine.” he said with a bit of difficulty as the world around him began to set itself right again.

“You are not injured? You did not hit your head? No blood loss? You are breathing okay, yes?” she didn’t sound convinced, he noted with amusement. Didn’t expect her too, really. Hell if she had fallen in the middle of a courtyard after a mission he supposed he’d be concerned, too.

“Nah, just tired, I suppose.” he said, sitting up and getting his bearings. 

The morning light continued to stream through the dust rising around them, coating the world in gold and crimson. He only peripherally noticed the people at the edge of his vision moving supplies and agents to and from the hovercraft, their boisterous conversations the only sound breaking the silence of the early morning. He had more important things to focus on. Angela. Her face was glowing in the early sun and the sunrise catching in her wild, unbound white-blonde hair formed almost a halo above her head. He found he couldn’t speak, or even think of a single word to say as he stared into her beautiful, kind face, her brow slightly creased with worry. She grabbed his wrist and felt for his pulse. Satisfied with what she found there, she looked towards him again.

“Well, that I am glad to hear. When you fell...I was afraid...I suppose I am simply glad that you are alright. How did the mission go?” She said, standing and pulling him to his feet. She pulled her white dressing gown around her against the chill of the desert morning, and Jesse resisted the urge to draw her towards him to help her keep warm. He was already feeling a bit wobbly from the adrenaline, and having her near to him wouldn’t help at all in that regard.

“About as wrong as it could go without us actually failing the mission. Reyes says we got him. Weren’t able to capture him, unfortunately, since things went south. Not sure how much I am supposed to tell you. Reyes said we’re reporting to Morrison at 0600, which is in an hour or so, I guess.”

“Well, I am glad that you are not hurt.” she said with a small, infectious smile.

“Same here, angel.” he laughed

“Angela,” he said, as his voice took a serious tone, “Ashe was there.” her face fell as she reached out and grabbed his hand.

“What happened?”

“I couldn’t.” he looked away towards the sunrise. “Couldn’t shoot her, didn’t have the manpower to capture her. Even if letting her go leads to trouble for me down the road, I couldn’t stop her. She wouldn’t have hesitated with me. Hell, I wouldn’t have hesitated if I were in the same situation a few months ago.”

“Why did you? Hesitate?”

“I think you know the answer to that as well as I do.” he said, looking back towards her, capturing her eyes with his own. He reached out with his free hand and brushed her untamed blonde hair away from the side of her face, running his thumb across her temple as he did.

“Angela. There’s something I’ve got to tell you. Something that I probably should have told you a while ago. I found myself at the wrong side of a gun last night, and looking at it and realizing there was no way out, that I probably only had minutes to live, the only thing I could think about was you. Angela…”

His sentence was cut off by the crush of her lips on his. He started in surprise, then relaxed, moving his hand from her face to the back of her neck as her arms worked their way over his shoulders. A bubble of joy welled up in his chest, and he smiled into their kiss, breaking it to tilt his head forward and rest it on hers, he opened his eyes to see hers sparkling back at him as they caught the light of the early morning sun. He studied her face, determined to remember everything about this moment, the crisp morning air, the dust swirling around them in the snow, but more importantly Angela’s smile, her eyes, the feeling of her holding him.

“That was what you were going to say, yes?” she said with a small laugh, smiling up at him.

“Just about.” he laughed as he kissed her again.


End file.
